Murder suspect arrested in Jharkhand after two years

Special police team from Navalur apprehends murder suspect in Jharkand after two-year chase, facing language and terrain challenges.

After a long search, a special team of police from Navalur nabbed a suspect in Jharkand who was on the run after committing a murder on the outskirts of Chennai nearly two years ago.

On August, 25, 2022, the body of Sankara Doss, 33, of West Bengal was found at his workplace in Navalur. The police launched an investigation and found that Rashid Sheik, 33, of Jharkand, who worked with the victim went missing. They suspected that Rashid Sheik was the murderer.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Pallikaranai, Gautham Goyal deputed a special team to Jharkand. Mr. Goyal said: “The area in which the suspect was hiding is dominated by forests. Only 20% of the area speaks Hindi and others speak either Santhali or Bengali local languages. Our personnel had a language barrier, and the terrain was very difficult to navigated and was also infested with left- wing extremists. Another major challenge was that whenever the villagers spotted the team, they would warn the accused. We faced these issues in our two previous attempts to apprehend the suspect.”

“Initially, we did not tie-up with the local police but shadowed the family only. We found a street vendor who was not close to family and had him observe them daily. We also sought the help of the district special team in Jharkhand. We developed local sources and gathered some information on the movement of the suspect, who actually operates from Bangladesh. He was a merchant and crossed the border regularly. He very rarely came back to his village. Fortunately, we received information that the father-in-law of the accused had organised a grand family function. We waited till the suspect turned up and secured him at the village in Sahibganj.”

The team arrested him on July 16 and brought him to Navalur after obtaining a transit warrant at a local court in Jharkand. The police also investigated to find out whether the suspect is Indian or Bangladeshi.