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NEW DELHI: A criminal from Punjab, arrested for being involved in multiple online frauds in Howrah , managed to escape from custody after locking up a policeman in the washroom of Banga Bhavan in Lutyens’ Delhi where the team from West Bengal Police had been staying. DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said a case of resisting lawful apprehension (IPC section 224) has been lodged and a manhunt launched to nab the accused.

A team from the Cyber Crime police station, Howrah City had gone to Sangrur in Punjab to arrest Gagandeep Singh (26). After a successful raid, the four-member team arrested him and got a five-day transit remand. They began their return journey on June 29. When the team reached Delhi, they took a room at Banga Bhavan.

In their complaint, the police team leader said that they had gone to Farsh Bazar to conduct a raid pertaining to another case of cyber fraud registered in Howrah leaving Singh in the custody of an ASI. At 6.30am, they got a call from the ASI saying that Singh had locked him in the washroom and escaped. The raiding team rushed back to Banga Bhavan and unlocked the washroom and started looking for Singh.

The ASI said that when he went to the washroom to relieve himself, he took Singh along to ensure that he doesn’t escape. However, as soon as he entered, the criminal pushed him inside and locked the door.

CCTV footage from the building showed Singh walking out of the main gate without raising any suspicion. Cops are verifying the version with other people in the building to ascertain the sequence of events.

