Delhi criminal facing over 100 cases arrested from Lucknow

A criminal wanted in over 100 cases including murder, car-jacking and kidnapping, but evading arrest from the last 11 years, has been arrested from Lucknow, Delhi Police said on Monday.

Sharad Pandey, a resident of Uttam Nagar here, was carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head.

"We had received a tip-off that Pandey constructed a bungalow in Woodland Township in Lucknow and was coming there to sell it. Following the information, a team was rushed to Lucknow on Sunday to arrest him. A trap was laid and when Pandey came there for the deal, he was apprehended," Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime, Ram Gopal Naik said.

A country-made pistol and four live cartridges were recovered from him. 

Police said that Pandey was wanted in eight murders including one triple murder, two double murders and various cases of robberies and theft of luxury vehicles. 

Pandey and his associates had murdered three people in Haryana in February 2017 and threw their dead bodies in a canal in the state's Gohana area, Naik said. 

In December 2015, he had killed two men in Punjab's Bhatinda and in 2009-2010, killed two men in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, he added.

Police said that Pandey had also kidnapped a doctor of central Delhi in 2015 and demanded Rs 5 crore as ransom.

"Pandey was a leader of a gang which had looted more than 100 luxury vehicles from Vasant Kunj Mall, Saket Mall, NH-8, the IGI Airport and Vasant Vihar. They would dispose of the looted vehicles in northeastern states," Naik said, adding that 17 of the stolen luxury cars were traced to Arunachal Pradesh. IANS