AHMEDABAD: After evading arrest for nine years after jumping parole in a wife-murder case, a life-term convict has been arrested by Surat’s Sachin Police in Haryana, ending one of the force’s longest manhunts under an operation codenamed Operation Prison.
Surendra Kallu Prasad Verma, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife back in 2007, was traced and arrested following a meticulously planned crackdown that pieced together old case files, ground intelligence and sustained surveillance.
In 2016, Verma was released on parole but failed to return to prison, choosing instead to disappear and evade authorities for nearly a decade. His parole jump forced police to reopen the case as a live manhunt, tracking his movements across multiple states.
To crack the case, the Sachin Police launched Operation Prison, reviving decade-old leads and retracing the accused’s movements starting from his native Beohra village in Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh. Investigators found that Verma had deliberately cut off contact with his parents and brother, leaving even family members unaware of his whereabouts.
As part of the operation, police pasted Verma’s photographs at rickshaw stands in Karvi taluka, acting on inputs that he had worked as a rickshaw driver. The strategy yielded partial success when a rickshaw puller informed police that Verma had appeared in Shankarganj about six months earlier for his brother-in-law’s wedding, had remarried, and had briefly lived as a tenant in Navi Duniya Bankat. Subsequent raids, however, failed as Verma had already moved again.
Fresh intelligence eventually placed him in Ghata village in Gurugram, Haryana. A Sachin Police team travelled to the village, operated in plainclothes, posed as locals and maintained surveillance for nearly eight hours. Verma was finally apprehended when he stepped out to buy biscuits for his son, unaware that police were closing in.
Confirming the arrest, Assistant Commissioner of Police N P Gohil said, “This accused believed that by changing locations, identities and cutting off family ties, he could escape the law. Operation Prison was launched to prove the opposite. After nine years of sustained effort, we have ensured that a life convict who jumped parole is finally back in custody.”
He added that inter-state coordination, local intelligence and on-ground verification were crucial to the operation. “Such arrests send a clear message, no matter how long it takes, absconding convicts will be traced and brought to justice,” the officer said.
With Verma now in police custody and legal procedures underway to return him to prison, Sachin Police have closed a long-pending case while underscoring that time, distance and disguise cannot keep fugitives beyond the reach of the law.