CUTTACK: Commissionerate Police has arrested a 42-year-old life convict, who had been absconding for the last nine years after being released on a 14-day furlough from Choudwar Circle Jail here.
The fugitive Sajit Khan was caught from Amritsar in Punjab. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case of 2008. Khan had fled to Amritsar where he assumed a new name Fayaz Khan and earned his livelihood as a bedsheet hawker.
Briefing mediapersons, DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo said on April 28, 2008, Sajit and his three associates Faka alias Mujafar, Sk Sanwar alias Tuku and Sk Noor Hassan alias Raja of Bhairpur under Jagatpur police station had attempted to rape a woman inside a mango orchard. When her younger sister tried to save her, the criminals brutally murdered her.
Based on the complaint of the woman, police arrested all of them on August 13, 2008. Sajit was sentenced to life imprisonment in the year 2010.
“In 2017, Sajit was granted 14 days furlough from the Circle Jail, Choudwar, from March 7 to March 20, with instructions to surrender on March 21. But instead of returning to prison, he absconded and disappeared, evading law enforcement for years,” said Dnyandeo.
In the meantime, the jail authorities sent notices to his family but to no avail. In December, 2025, senior superintendent of Choudwar Circle Jail lodged a complaint in Jagatpur police station following which efforts were made to nab him.
During investigation, police tracked Sajit’s relatives mobile phones, with whom he had been in contact for all these years, and traced him to Amritsar in Punjab. Dnyandeo said to evade arrest, Sajit was living with a fake identity of Fayaz Khan, forging all documents including Aadhaar and driving licence.
“He earned his livelihood as a bedsheet hawker, married and started a family, all while remaining a proclaimed absconder from justice. Basing on further investigation and ground intelligence, a special team went to Amritsar and apprehended Sajit with help of the local police there,” said the DCP.
He was produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Amritsar on June 27. After being granted four days transit remand, police brought Sajit back to Odisha to produce him in court, Dnyandeo said.
