How Phone Tracking Helped Delhi Police Arrest Wanted Man On The Run For 12 Years

A 62-year-old man who disappeared for 12 years after committing forgery in the national capital was arrested in Tamil Nadu, where he had started a new life as a poultry farmer, a Delhi Police official said on Monday.

He said success came after the Crime Branch recently took over the case and tracked his mobile number.

Manoharan Kandhasamy, carrying a reward of Rs 50,000, was arrested on August 4 from a godown on the outskirts of Tiruchengode in Namakkal district, police said.

"Kandhasamy was declared a proclaimed offender in 2014 after he stopped appearing before a court in a forgery case involving fake letterheads purportedly issued by political parties and government authorities," a senior Crime Branch police officer said.

According to police, the case originated in 2007 when a 65-year-old man from Hyderabad complained at the Mandir Marg Police Station in Delhi that gold ornaments and other valuables kept in an almirah at a dharamshala had been stolen.

During the investigation, police apprehended Kandhasamy.

Although the stolen property was not recovered, police found several printed and blank letterheads purportedly belonging to political parties and government authorities in his possession.

"The documents were subsequently found to be fake, following which a separate case was registered in 2008. The matter was later transferred to the Delhi Police for further investigation. Kandhasamy was arrested and sent to judicial custody but secured bail after about a month. He then stopped appearing before the court and went underground," the officer said.

A city court declared him a proclaimed offender in 2014, following which a reward of Rs 50,000 was announced for information leading to his arrest.

Recently, a team analysed electronic inputs and identified a mobile number Kandhasamy was actively using in Tamil Nadu. After more than a month of technical surveillance and field verification, the team traced him to Tiruchengode and arrested him, police said.

During interrogation, Kandhasamy told police that he had absconded after being released on bail as he feared conviction and imprisonment.

"He changed his residence, severed contact with his previous associates and shifted to Tamil Nadu, where he settled with his family and established a poultry business. Kandhasamy, originally from Mangaluru in Karnataka, is married and has two children. He had been living in Tiruchengode for several years, and the poultry business was his family's main source of livelihood," police said.

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