The Special Task Force (STF) of the Haryana police arrested a wanted criminal named Pradeep lohar alias Kala from Noida's Sector-23 area on Sunday evening.
He was wanted in several cases of murder, kidnapping, loot and dacoity and was carrying a reward of Rs 1.5 lakh on his head by the Haryana police.
The accused was a former member of the Pradeep Jamwadi gang. lohar was in jail in 2017 and came out on parole but did not return. He was serving a life imprisonment in a murder case which he had committed in Hisar, police said.
STF Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Saurabh Singh, said, "Acting on a tip-off, the STF was following him from Delhi for fifteen days. The team had received a lead input about his presence in Noida and nabbed him. Pradeep had joined most wanted gangster Pradeep Jamwadi gang in 2002".
After Jamwadi's arrest, lohar took over the leadership of the gang which the former didn't like. "The accused came out of jail in 2017 and he killed Jamwadi and his mother. The Hisar police had fixed a bounty of Rs 1 lakh in connection with the murder case. In another kidnapping case the police had fixed Rs 50 thousand," Singh, said.
During the preliminary interrogation, lohar confessed his involvement in 24 cases of murder, attempt to murder, loot and dacoity. During his jail term he was contacted with Kaushal and Joginder gang and was allegedly involved in several heinous crimes, the police said.
To avid his arrest he used to stay in hills, Akhada and Ashrams. During the summer he used to stay in Himachal Pradesh and in winter he stayed in Rajasthan. He makes friends via Facebook and visits them and spend some time with them. He kept changing his locations to avoid his arrest," the police said.
"He was one of the most wanted criminal. Several other cases are also registered against them, regarding murders, attempts to murder, loot and dacoity including Arms Act. He will be produced before the district court for questioning further," the DIG said.