Serial killer who murdered taxi drivers arrested after 25 years
What's the story
Ajay Lamba (49), a fugitive wanted for over 25 years for the murders of multiple cab drivers, was arrested in Delhi on Sunday. He is accused of a series of crimes, including hiring taxis, murdering drivers, dumping their bodies in Uttarakhand forests, and selling the vehicles across the Nepal border. The police said he was the mastermind behind four brutal robbery-cum-murder cases in Delhi and Uttarakhand.
Criminal history
Early life and criminal background
Born in 1976, Lamba was a resident of Delhi's Krishna Nagar. He dropped out of school after Class 6 and got involved in crime early on. The Vikas Puri police had declared him a "bad character" under the alias "Banshi." In 1996, he changed his name to Ajay Lamba and moved to Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where he partnered with accomplices Dhirendra and Dilip Negi.
Global crime
Declared a proclaimed offender
Lamba was never arrested in the four robbery-cum-murder cases in Delhi, Haldwani, Almora, and Champawat. He was declared a proclaimed offender in all cases. To evade arrest, he frequently changed locations and identities. From 2008 to 2018, he lived in Nepal with his family before moving to Dehradun. In 2020, he got involved in narcotics smuggling as part of a ganja supply network from Odisha to Delhi and other parts of India.
Arrest history
Arrests in unrelated cases
Lamba was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by Sagarpur police in 2021. He was also arrested in connection with a jewelry shop dacoity in Berhampur, Odisha, in 2024. Even after getting bail in these cases, he never disclosed his fugitive status, police said. His arrest in Delhi came after a coordinated operation by the police.