Dharmarajan has finally landed in the police net. The notorious advocate, who took the entire state by surprise with his TV appearance the other day after he had been on the run for 10 years by jumping bail in the Suryanelli case, was arrested by the special investigation team from Kargal, Karnataka, on Friday. Dharmarajan, the third accused in the case and the only person convicted, had put the authorities in a spot by his revelations on the involvement of P J Kurien in the rape case, and had almost challenged the police to catch him. The police team led by Ponkunnam Circle Inspector P Rajkumar, which was on the hunt for him for the last few days, caught him from a forest temple premises at Kargal near Sagara in Shimoga district around 11.30 am.
He will be produced before the Additional District and Sessions Court (Special), Kottayam, on Saturday. The police team started its journey back to Kottayam by 12.30 pm shortly after the arrest and is expected to reach here early on Saturday morning, according to police sources.
Additional District and Sessions Court (Special) judge S Shajahan had issued an arrest warrant against Dharmarajan as he had been absconding since October 10, 2002, when he was out on bail. He had been sentenced to 13 years’ rigorous imprisonment by the court on July 12, 2002. The HC had relaxed his life sentence to five years. The state police had constituted a special investigation team led by the Superintendent of Police, Kottayam, C Rajagopal, to nab Dharmarajan.
According to Rajagopal, the investigation team located Dharmarajan with the help of mobile phone signals. He refused to disclose how the police team secured his mobile number. “The team found that Dharmarajan was in Shimoga district by monitoring his mobile phone signal and the search operations were centred there. With the help of cyber cell, we could find his exact place, which was a temple in the Western Ghat forests. He had clean-shaven his head to disguise himself,” Rajagopal said.
Speaking to Express over phone, CI Rajkumar said that Dharmarajan was staying in various places in Karnataka, including Shimoga, Mysore and Coorg. He knew well the geography of Karnataka. “He was working in various places, including quarries and plantations. Sagara and Arppikkara are his frequent travelling places. We used his previous connections and other sources, including mobile phone signals, to nab him,” Rajkumar said.