Man who killed cabbies, dumped bodies in forests held after 25 yrs

New Delhi: A 49-year-old man, who was on the run for around 25 years, has been arrested in Delhi in connection with a string of crimes where he allegedly hired taxis, killed the drivers, dumped their bodies in remote forested areas of Uttarakhand and sold the vehicles off across the Nepal border, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

The accused, Ajay Lamba alias Banshi, was wanted in four brutal robbery-cum-murder cases across Delhi and Uttarakhand. He was declared a proclaimed offender in all the cases, including a 2001 murder case registered at the New Ashok Nagar police station here, police said.

Lamba was the alleged mastermind behind a string of heinous crimes committed between 1999 and 2001, in which he, along with associates, targeted taxi drivers, killed them, looted their vehicles and dumped the bodies in remote forested areas of Uttarakhand to evade identification,

the officer said.

“Born in 1976 and originally a resident of Delhi’s Krishna Nagar, Ajay dropped out of school after Class 6 and became involved in crime at an early age. He was previously declared a ‘Bad Character’ by the Vikas Puri police under the alias ‘Banshi’. In 1996, he changed his name to Ajay Lamba and shifted base to Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where he teamed up with accomplices Dhirendra and Dilip Negi,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Aditya Gautam said. Together, they operated a violent criminal enterprise in which taxis were hired, the drivers killed, the vehicles looted and resold across the Nepal border, he added.

Police said Lamba was never arrested in the four robbery-cum-murder cases lodged against him in Delhi, Haldwani, Almora and Champawat. He was declared a proclaimed offender in all cases and also faced earlier charges, including theft and arms possession, dating back to the 1990s.

Lamba evaded arrest for over two decades by frequently changing identities and locations. He lived in Nepal (2008–2018), later moving to Dehradun. In 2020, he joined a ganja-supply network from Odisha to Delhi. Arrested under the NDPS Act in 2021 and for a 2024 dacoity, he was out on bail and caught

recently in Delhi.