Haridwar, 02 November (HS). A drug dealer carrying a bounty of Rs 10,000, who was absconding for four years, was arrested by the police from Delhi Airport when he was planning to flee abroad. The accused was absconding since 2020. After the incident, the police was searching for the accused while on the other hand the accused was traveling to countries like Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia etc. Finally, after four years, the accused was caught by the police.
Disclosing the case on Saturday, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Doval said that on July 27, 2020, STF Dehradun had recovered 41 grams of smack from the possession of accused Hitesh. In this regard, a case was registered against him in Shyampur police station. After the charge sheet of Sub Inspector Rakhi Rawat of Shyampur police station was sent to the court on 05 December 2020 against the main accused Hitesh Kumar, the name of the other accused Vinay Thapa involved in the incident came to light. The police started searching for Vinay Thapa, but despite many efforts, Vinay Thapa could not be caught by the police.
Due to his continuous absconding, non-bailable warrant, attachment warrant etc. were issued from the court against Vinay Thapa. The then SSP Haridwar announced a reward of Rs 5,000 on fugitive Vinay Thapa on 25 November 2022. Due to the failure of the accused to be arrested, the present SSP Haridwar increased the reward amount on the accused to Rs 10,000 on March 01, 2024.
Based on the fragmentary information received by the police, who were searching for the reward, they came to know only that a person named Thapa used to do motorcycle business in Dehradun in the past and used to play snooker with his friends in a bar on Rajpur Road. Then a team went from Premnagar to Rajpur Road and searched all the snooker playing places and got the information from there that once in the year 2019, a motorcycle sold by Vinay Thapa was seized by some police station in Dehradun, which Vinay Thapa was using. It was registered in the same name. After hard work, the police found out the number of the motorcycle and when they asked for information from the concerned RTO, it came to light that Vinay Thapa had given his Aadhar card and passport as ID.
When the police team inquired about the passport number through proper channel from the Delhi Bureau of Immigration Department, after the incident, it came to light that the accused Vinay Thapa was frequently traveling to countries like Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia etc. The other team of Shyampur police station traced the Instagram ID of the accused and kept an eye on Inami's activities by continuously following it. On the basis of information being sent by different teams, Shyampur police station took action to issue a look out notice for Vinay Thapa.
On November 1, when absconding bounty hunter Vinay Thapa was traced at Delhi airport while going to Dubai, the Bureau of Immigration department informed the Shyampur police station. As soon as the information was received, the Shyampur police station team reached Delhi Airport and after completing all the paperwork from the Bureau of Immigration department, the accused Vinay Thapa was taken into custody.