Sharma was found dead in a burnt car near Eldeco Crossing in Greater Noida, police said on 1 May.

RTI activist Chandra Mohan Sharma whose burnt body was found in his car in Greater Noida nearly three months ago, is now expected to have staged his death. The activist was caught alive in Bangalore on Wednesday.

The arrest followed reports that the AAP member had been spotted in Nepal. The police had sent teams to Karnataka as well as Nepal to search for the 38-year-old Sharma suspecting he had staged his death.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Sharma's wife, Savita confirmed unofficially that the tip-off was indeed true and said she too thought that the activist had faked his death.

"There was a young woman in our locality who was in touch with my husband. She used to contact him on his private number, which was known to only a few people. After a month of his death she also went missing," Hindustan Times quoted her as saying.

In addition to looking for Sharma, the police have started investigations to ascertain the identity of the person who's charred, unrecognisable remains were found in Sharma's car.

Sharma was found dead in a burnt car near Eldeco Crossing in Greater Noida, police said on 1 May. At the time, the police had said that Sharma was burnt alive after his car caught fire. However, the Aam Aadmi Party had demanded an independent probe into Sharma's alleged death.

Even Sharma’s relatives had alleged he was murdered by the land mafia and they lodged an FIR. Sharma had been active in fighting illegal encroachments and had filed an RTI query on the alleged illegal takeover of temple land near his home, NDTV reported.

He was also one of the first people to join Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement, and later the AAP.

With inputs from PTI