ISLAMABAD: Police in India’s Fazilka have arrested Indian Army Captain Sandeep Tomar, who had been absconding for nearly four years in connection with the murder of his wife.
His arrest was facilitated after he used his real bank account number and PAN card for LPG cylinder refills and financial transactions, enabling authorities to trace him.
According to Fazilka SSP Gurmeet Singh, Tomar had originally been booked under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2013 on charges of assaulting his wife, demanding dowry, and being responsible for her death. The complaint was lodged by the father of the deceased.
Police officials stated that Tomar murdered his wife, Shweta Singh, and initially attempted to portray the incident as a suicide.
However, subsequent investigations established that it was a case of murder. He was arrested on the day of the incident and later spent nearly five years in jail. In 2014, a local court convicted Tomar and sentenced him to life imprisonment, after which he was sent to jail in Ferozepur.
He later challenged the verdict and was granted bail by the High Court in 2019.
However, in 2022, the High Court upheld his life sentence and ordered him to surrender. Defying the court’s orders, Tomar went into hiding and remained absconding since 2022.
Police continued their search for him over the years, and he was finally arrested this week in a joint operation with police from Madhya Pradesh.
Originally hailing from Kanpur, Tomar was serving as a captain in the 12 Bihar Regiment and was posted in Abohar at the time of the incident. His wife was also a resident of Uttar Pradesh.
According to the FIR, the couple got married in February 2013, and Shweta Singh died on July 8, 2013.
The complainant-her father-alleged that soon after the marriage, Tomar and his family began harassing her for dowry. The deceased had reportedly shared her ordeal with her mother before her death.
Following his release on bail, Tomar changed his identity and moved across various parts of the country to evade arrest.
During his time in hiding, he altered his appearance, frequently changed addresses, and worked in different locations, including Odisha, Bengaluru, and Madhya Pradesh.
At the time of his arrest, police revealed that Tomar had remarried and was living under a concealed identity before being apprehended.
