Moon Gazer continues……

Naturally, front-page stories with mocking photographs of the gaping hole in the lock-up of the R.K. Puram police station appeared in the newspapers the following day. It was an embarrassing moment for the Delhi Police. Facing the next of kin of those who had been butchered by Singh et al. was very difficult. The two desperados had proved that they were veritable Houdinis, difficult to keep in captivity for long.

I immediately dispatched police teams to Babina in Uttar Pradesh and Guna in Madhya Pradesh to check if the fugitives had gone there. But our searches and raids were all to no avail. The hunt for Singh and Bharose began all over again.

It was clear to me that pertinent information, if any, would come from Guna and Guna alone. I had kept in touch with Maithali Sharan Gupt, the SP of Guna, who alerted his informers of the escape and the urgency of arresting Singh and Bharose. The SI was once again dispatched to Guna to make inquiries in the villages inhabited by the gang members and alert his own informers. We waited with bated breath for any information about their whereabouts.

Having completed three full years in the south district I had moved to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police in the first week of August 1992. Meanwhile, the case connected with the escape of the two gangsters from the R.K. Puram police station had been transferred to the Crime Branch. In my new assignment as DCP of the Crime Branch it was my responsibility to take the case to its logical conclusion by tracing the gangsters who had escaped from police custody.

Luckily, maintaining contact with the SP of Guna paid off. Within a month of the ‘great escape’ of the serial killers, informers of the Guna Police spotted Singh and Bharose near Chak Murania village in Guna district. They had taken refuge in the jungles on the outskirts of the village and were being provided succour by their associates Tataria and Babla, who lived in the village.

To be continued….