40-year-old murder case solved, accused held

In a major breakthrough, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police has arrested an 84-year-old man who had been on the run for nearly four decades in connection with a 1986 murder case. The accused, identified as Chandra Shekhar Prasad, was apprehended from a factory storeroom in northwest Delhi’s Nangli Poona area, where he was living under a false identity.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, said the arrest reflects sustained efforts to bring long-pending cases to a close. “Our teams remain committed to tracking offenders and ensuring justice, regardless of how much time has passed,” he said.

The case dates back to October 19, 1986, when Prasad allegedly murdered his wife at their residence in Shakarpur. Police said he attacked her by crushing her head with bricks, driven by suspicion of an extramarital relationship. During the incident, the domestic help present at the house was held at gunpoint by the accused and his associates.

After the crime, Prasad and his accomplices fled and managed to evade arrest for years. In 1987, a court declared him an absconder. Despite efforts over the years, the case remained unsolved, with no clear leads or trace of the accused.

Investigators faced significant challenges in reopening the case. The accused was around 40 years old at the time of the murder and is now about 84. There were no digital records, photographs, or identification tools available from that period. Police had to rely entirely on field intelligence and manual tracking methods.

A fresh effort was initiated by the Central Range of the Crime Branch in recent months. The police team began tracing possible links through the accused’s family. During the investigation, police found that Prasad’s children were settled in Delhi and Bihar. Suspected mobile numbers linked to family members were discreetly put under surveillance. Teams were also sent to his native village in Nalanda district of Bihar, where it was confirmed that he was still alive and occasionally visited during family or religious events.

Based on technical inputs, police learned about his possible movement following a family bereavement. Surveillance was intensified, combining local intelligence with technical tracking. His movement was eventually traced to northwest Delhi.

On April 22, 2026, police laid a trap and arrested him from a factory premises in Nangli Poona, Alipur. He had been hiding there while working under a false identity. During interrogation, Prasad confessed to the crime. He told police that he frequently argued with his wife due to suspicions about her character. On the day of the incident, he and his associates attacked and killed her before fleeing.

Police said that during his years on the run, Prasad kept moving between Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi to avoid detection. He worked as a rickshaw puller in Patiala and also spent time at an ashram in Haryana.