A fortnight after he got a hair transplant to help him change his appearance, a convicted killer on the run for the last three years was arrested from west Delhi’s Dwarka on Thursday, police said.
Mohit Wadhwa, 30, had also allegedly shaved off his moustache and assumed a fake name ‘Ankit’ in his effort to conceal his identity. But a tip-off gave away his location to the police on Thursday, nearly three years after he jumped parole in January 2016.
Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said when Wadhwa was cornered, he tried to shoot at the police but was caught before he could do any damage.
“Wadhwa had visited Chandigarh on November 20 and got hair transplantation done on his bald head by paying Rs 80,000. Encouraged by the growth of his hair, Wadhwa recently shaved off his moustache in the hope of donning a totally new look,” said another investigator.
A resident of Hisar in Haryana, Wadhwa had shot and killed a “criminal” in his native town in August 2006. “The criminal had attacked Wadhwa’s father with a sword during a quarrel. Wadhwa later ‘avenged’ the attack on his father by shooting the criminal and dumping his body in a canal,” said the DCP.
Wadhwa was arrested and convicted by a district court in 2008 and his appeal against his conviction was turned down by the Supreme Court. Police said he sought parole in January 2016 but never returned to jail.
“Wadhwa was living in various parts of Punjab and Delhi during his days on the run. For a while, he sustained himself by working at a call centre that duped people by getting credit and debit card details,” said an investigator. “But he quit that work and was planning a robbery. He took a flat on rent in Dwarka Morh and procured a pistol when we were tipped off,” said the officer.
