Two men accused of a brutal double murder in Sarita Vihar more than two decades ago have been arrested after years of evading the law. The Crime Branch said the men had slipped into new identities, moved across states, and lived quiet lives as labourers, far from the violence that once shocked a Delhi neighbourhood. Their arrest shuts one of the capital’s oldest pending murder cases.
The case dates back to 2002. The victims were a 22-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter, found dead inside the kitchen of their home in Madanpur Khadar. The house was ransacked. The bodies were lying in a pool of blood. Both had sharp injuries, including to the neck. Police later said the motive was a rivalry between two men working in the same tailoring trade.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Pankaj Kumar said the arrests show that time does not weaken the pursuit of justice. “No crime is forgotten. No criminal escapes accountability. One accused hid for 23 years; another lived free for 18 years after jumping parole. Their arrest reflects the commitment of the Crime Branch,” he said.
The breakthrough came after a fresh push by the NDR unit at RK Puram. Officers said the case file had been reviewed several times, but the fugitives always managed to stay ahead of police action. This time, the team began with manual surveillance and technical inputs. They followed old leads in Bihar, where both men belonged, and then widened the search across several states.
Police officials investigated the technical part of the probe, pieced together phone activity, location patterns, and movement details, and tracked one suspect, Amalesh, to Jamnagar in Gujarat. Officers said he had been living under the radar as a factory labourer, moving frequently to avoid detection.
A second police team traced Sushil, the co-accused, to Lalgarh near the Indo-Nepal border. Police said he had been living under a different identity and shifted between Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra over the years.
He had been convicted and awarded the death penalty by a trial court, later reduced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court. He was out on parole in 2007 and never returned.
Amalesh, now 45, had been declared a proclaimed offender. Police said he also worked as a labourer and supported his family while hiding from law enforcement for 23 years. Sushil, now 43, stayed unmarried and kept moving across states to avoid detection. Both men admitted their role in the murder during questioning, officers said.
The original case was filed on January 28, 2002. The complainant, Anil Kumar, had returned home to find his front door open and the house in disarray. When he forced open the kitchen, he found his wife and daughter dead. Police arrested Sushil soon after. He told officers that he and Amalesh had planned the murders due to business rivalry. Investigators said the pair attacked the victims with a knife.
Investigators are now analysing information gathered during interrogation. Police said the accused had support networks that helped them move and find work. More details may emerge as questioning continues.
For the victims’ family, the arrests bring closure after two decades of uncertainty. The Crime Branch said both men will face further legal action, and the process to restart trial proceedings on pending sections has begun. Officers said the arrests prove that even after decades, the trail of a violent crime never fully disappears.