Gurugram: For six years, Haryana’s most-wanted gangster Mainpal Badli lived under an assumed name, ‘Sonu Kumar’, in Cambodia, where he ran a discotheque-style restaurant and bar, and had three children with a live-in partner.
This week, Badli, also known as Mainpal ‘Dhilla’, was arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on being extradited from Cambodia about 10 days after he was detained there by the authorities, and handed over to a Haryana Police Special Task Force (STF) team.
The 48-year-old fugitive, accused in multiple criminal cases, including murders, had a Rs 7 lakh bounty on his head, and had been on the run ever since he jumped parole in 2018.
“The operation was a concerted effort between Haryana STF, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Interpol, the Ministry of External Affairs, and the Cambodian government, and it shows the strength of international cooperation in catching fugitives,” the CBI said in a press release issued Wednesday.
Haryana STF Inspector General B. Satish Balan told ThePrint Thursday that a team of experts, headed by Indian Police Service officer Wasim Akram, Deputy Superintendent of Police Madan Singh, and Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar, flew to Phnom Penh to apprehend Badli, who had been under Cambodian police custody since 20 August, 2025.
“In Cambodia, the fugitive was living under the assumed name of Sonu Kumar. He was living in a common-law relationship with a Cambodian woman, and the couple had three children. He was running a discothèque restaurant and bar in Siem Reap, Cambodia, when Haryana’s STF caught up with him,” he said.
According to a police source, a native of Badli village in Jhajjar district, Badli was a tractor mechanic. His life of crime started in 2000, when a dispute about water drainage in his village resulted in the killing of his uncle, Hemchandra.
He soon murdered his maternal uncle Omprakash, and established a reputation for himself as a dreaded person in the locality. These early acts of violence propelled him into organised crime, eventually making him Haryana’s number-one most-wanted criminal.
Badli’s criminal record is extensive, with 22 cases registered across various police stations in the state. These include charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery, dacoity, criminal conspiracy, drug trafficking, and illegal arms trade.
He was convicted in three murder cases, each resulting in life imprisonment. But Badli’s criminal activities continued even during incarceration. In 2014, while lodged in Gurugram’s Bhondsi Jail, he allegedly murdered a fellow inmate, leading to additional charges.
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Escape on parole & life in Cambodia
Badli’s escape from justice began on 17 July, 2018, when he was granted a six-week parole from Hisar Central Jail, where he was serving his life sentences.
Failing to return, he violated the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Act, prompting an FIR at Sadar Bahadurgarh Police Station. On 30 October, 2019, a Bahadurgarh court declared him a proclaimed offender.
Balan told The Print that human intelligence revealed the STF came to know that Badli had obtained an Indian passport using the assumed name ‘Sonu Kumar’, son of Ranvir Singh, with a false address in Gurugram.
He was also booked at Gurugram’s Sector-17/18 Police Station for cheating, forgery and violating the Passport Act by procuring a fake passport.
“Having taken this bogus passport, Badli left India on 7 July, 2019, through Kolkata Airport on flight TG-314 to Bangkok. He then moved to Mauritius and Indonesia, before settling in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he opened a discotheque-style restaurant and bar. Badli enjoyed a purportedly clean life, entering into a common-law relationship with a Cambodian woman, who bore him three children,” Balan said.
Asked how he managed to obtain the funds to open the restaurant and bar, the IG said that he took money with him when he left India.
International manhunt & extradition
The turning point came when Haryana STF, in association with Interpol, CBI and the Ministry of External Affairs, tracked him down to Cambodia. On 26 March this year, the CBI asked Cambodian authorities to take him into custody, and he was arrested on 20 August, 2025.
Following intense diplomatic efforts, Cambodian officials consented to expel Badli. The Haryana STF team apprehended him in Phnom Penh and returned him to India.
On arrival at Delhi airport, he was taken into custody for the case of the forged passport, and will be tried for his outstanding cases, including the Bhondsi Jail murder, while serving his current life sentences, said Balan. “We are interrogating him to uncover the full extent of his activities and accomplices.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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