A Team of Special Cell Southern Range (SR) arrested an absconding criminal who was wanted in a case of a gruesome murder of a minor girl in 2018, informed the police officials on Sunday. The absconding criminal has been identified as Shalu Topno. The case was registered in PS Mianwali Nagar (now Paschim Vihar West) Delhi.
The police officials informed that the accused was absconding for the last four years in the above-mentioned case and was declared proclaimed offender on October 16, 2018, by the trial court. The accused was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 for any information leading to the case. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Special Cell, PS Kushwah there was information in Special Cell/SR for the last four months about the movements of Shalu Topno who was continuously changing his hideouts in various states to evade his arrest in the above case. Various teams were sent to multiple states to track the movements of fugitive accused during this period.
“After incessant efforts of more than four months, specific information was received by the team of Insp. Shiv Kumar about the possible visit of accused Shalu Topno in his own village in District Gumla in Jharkhand. A team was immediately sent to Jharkhand from where Shalu Topno was finally traced and arrested on November 11, 2022,” said Delhi Commissioner of Police Special Cell, PS Kushwah. A dismembered body of a 15-year-old girl was found on May 17, 2018 near Ganda Naala in the area of PS Mianwali Nagar.
“FIR was registered in this regard in PS Mianwali Nagar. During the investigation of the case, three persons were arrested in the case, but Shalu Topno went underground and he kept on absconding since then,” said DCP Special Cell, PS Kushwah. On further investigation, Shalu Topno disclosed that he used to work in a manpower placement agency and used to bring girls from Jharkhand and Bihar on a commission basis to get them employed as domestic servants in Delhi.
He brought one minor girl (aged 12 years) from Jharkhand in the year 2015 and got her employed as a domestic servant in a house in Delhi. After three years, the girl desired to return to her home in Jharkhand and she asked for a payment of Rs. 2 lacs which was part of her salary amount. But Shalu Topno and placement agency owner Manjeet Karketta kept on delaying her payment, informed the police officials. As per the police when the girl threatened to complain against them, Shalu with his three associates killed her by hitting her on the head in their office. After that, they chopped her body into six parts and then put them in a bag and threw the body parts near Ganda Nala in the area of Mianwali Nagar, Delhi.
The accused was produced in court in Jharkhand and brought to Delhi on transit remand.
