New Delhi:
A gangster linked to dozens of murders escaped from police custody in Delhi after apparently serving food laced with sedatives to officers guarding him.
Vikram Paras, 27, carried out the daring escape as four armed officers were escorting him from the busy Old Delhi Railway Station in the capital early on Wednesday.
He drugged his escorts and then escaped with their guns. The cops have been suspended for negligent behaviour.
At 2 am, a phone call reported that a policeman was lying unconscious in the parking lot of the Old Delhi Railway Station.
When a police team reached the spot, two more policemen were found unconscious at the platform while a fourth one was found wandering around the railway station, dazed.
Paras, allegedly involved in dozens of cases of murder, extortion and robbery, was being brought back to Delhi by train after a court appearance at Bhatinda in neighbouring Punjab state.
"He is a desperate contract killer. We have launched an investigation based on the information that we have as of now. We are hopeful of nabbing him soon," Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.
"Four of his accomplices were probably trailing him.... possibly in police uniform, and were ready at the station with an SUV. They would have supplied the sedated food as well,"
said the Times of India today.
In 2012 Paras, who gained notoriety as the right-hand man of a now slain criminal gang lord, fled after "luring his escorts into a store on the promise of buying them branded apparel", the newspaper said.