A former Army captain who had been evading arrest for nearly four years after being convicted of killing his wife has been apprehended in Madhya Pradesh’s Pandhurna district. The arrest was carried out on Saturday through a joint effort involving local police and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID).
Sandeep Tomar was found guilty of murdering his wife, Shweta Singh, in 2013 at the Abohar cantonment in Punjab, just months after their marriage. Initially presented as a case of suicide, forensic findings later confirmed she had been strangled. A trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2014, following which he was dismissed from service.
After serving five years in jail, Tomar was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2019 while his appeal was pending. However, when the court upheld his life sentence in September 2022, he failed to surrender and disappeared.
During his time on the run, Tomar allegedly used a false identity and moved across multiple cities, including Zirakpur, Odisha, and Bengaluru, before settling in Pandhurna. He reportedly worked as a real estate agent earlier and later took up a job as a manager at a juice factory. Officials also said he had remarried while absconding.
Digital Trail Led To Arrest
Despite attempts to stay hidden, investigators tracked him through financial activity linked to his original identity. According to police, Tomar used his real PAN card to open a bank account, which raised suspicion. The account showed regular salary deposits from a Madhya Pradesh-based firm.
The breakthrough came when the same account was used to book an LPG cylinder refill. Authorities traced the delivery address through the gas agency and corroborated it with mobile tower location data, confirming his presence in Pandhurna.
Once his location was verified, police teams coordinated with local authorities to carry out the arrest from his residence. He was later brought back to Punjab on transit remand and produced in court, following which he was sent to judicial custody in Abohar on March 28.
The arrest brings to a close a prolonged manhunt that had intensified after the High Court sought a status update on the case from Punjab Police earlier this year.
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