Delhi Police arrest man convicted of killing his daughters after four years on the run

Indian Express

19 hours ago

A 70-year-old man convicted in the 1999 murders of his two minor daughters and the attempted murder of a third was arrested on Friday after evading custody for four years, the Delhi Police said.
The man, identified by police as Hamidullah Bundu Khan, a former resident of Old Mustafabad in northeast Delhi, was located and arrested by the Crime Branch at his residence in Loni, Ghaziabad. Authorities said he had been granted parole while serving a 20-year sentence and subsequently absconded.
'After sustained intelligence gathering, the team successfully apprehended the convict, despite his repeated attempts to evade capture by frequently changing his hideouts,' said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam. He added that the arrest was made possible through a combination of technical surveillance, human intelligence, and specific leads.
According to police, the case dates back to July 30, 1999, when Khan's eldest daughter reported to the Gokulpuri police station that her father had attempted to poison her and her two younger sisters the previous night. She told officers that Khan had returned home around 10.30 pm on July 29 and given each of his daughters a capsule, claiming it would help with a stomach ailment.
The capsules, she described, were blue on the outside and white on the inside. The eldest daughter told police that when she questioned her father, saying she alone had stomach pain, he insisted all three girls take the medicine. Suspecting something was wrong, she pretended to ingest the capsule but hid it under her tongue. She told police she then saw her father forcibly administer the capsules to her younger sisters.
The two younger children collapsed shortly after, displaying poisoning symptoms, including labored breathing and frothing at the mouth, according to the police report. The eldest daughter said she ran to alert neighbours, but by the time they returned to the house, Khan had fled. All three children were taken to a hospital, where the two younger girls were pronounced dead. The eldest daughter also exhibited symptoms but survived.
Khan was arrested the following day, July 31, 1999, and later convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) of the Indian Penal Code. He was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Police said that after being released on parole four years ago, Khan failed to return and remained untraceable, avoiding known contacts and frequently changing his location.