Delhi Police has arrested a 49-year-old man after 25 years for killing and robbing four taxi drivers in Delhi and Uttarakhand between 1999 and 2001.
“The accused, Ajay Lamba alias Bansi, was declared a proclaimed offender. He had been absconding for the past 25 years and was wanted in connection with a murder case registered at New Ashok Nagar Police Station in 2001,” said Aditya Gautam, DCP, Crime Branch.
Following technical surveillance, a team led by Inspectors Rakesh Kumar and Arjun Kumar arrested Lamba in Delhi on Saturday. The police said Lamba and his accomplices would allegedly hire taxis, kill the drivers, and dispose of their bodies in remote forest areas of Uttarakhand. They would then sell the stolen vehicles across the border in Nepal.
Lamba, originally a resident of Krishna Nagar in Delhi, dropped out of school after Class VI and became involved in criminal activities in his early teens. He was declared a bad character in Vikas Puri under the alias “Bansi” in 1996. He later changed his name to Ajay Lamba and moved to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. There, along with two other men—Dhirendra and Dilip Negi—he allegedly planned to murder taxi drivers and smuggle their vehicles to Nepal.
Lamba was wanted in four cases registered between 1999 and 2001—in Haldwani, Almora, and Champawat (Uttarakhand), and one in Delhi. He also has a series of older criminal cases dating back to 1990, ranging from theft to illegal possession of arms.
“He lived in Nepal for about 10 years, from 2008 to 2018, and then moved to Dehradun with his family… He was arrested under the NDPS Act in 2021 at Sagarpur Police Station, Delhi, and again in connection with a jewellery shop dacoity case in Behrampur, Odisha, in 2024. He was out on bail in both cases,” said DCP Gautam.
