New Delhi: For four years, former Army captain Sandeep Tomar, convicted of murdering his wife, managed to evade arrest.
From remote areas in Odisha to bustling Bengaluru, he moved around with ease by altering his Aadhaar details, rotating his identification documents, and changing phone numbers, using multiple SIM cards.
But his run ended on 25 March after an LPG cylinder booking in February provided Punjab Police with a digital footprint that helped track him down to a remote area in Madhya Pradesh.
Tomar was handed a life sentence in 2014 for murdering his wife, but was granted bail pending an appeal. He was reported absconding in 2022 after he failed to surrender following the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision to dismiss his appeal.
Over the next four years, Tomar started a whole new life: he managed to get jobs in Odisha and then in Bengaluru, where he even got married again.
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Tomar’s undercover life
Aaswant Singh Dhaliwal, the superintendent of police who headed the SIT to track down Tomar, told ThePrint the convict was well-educated and fluent in English, and had used his professional background to blend into corporate environments, far from the incident state and his home state — Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
In 2022, he moved to Akola in Odisha, where he worked in an administrative role at a factory for a year.
“He didn’t change his name, but he changed his driving license, Aadhaar card address, and bank account details. In Odisha, nobody knew him. Neither was his family from Kanpur in touch with him,” SP Dhaliwal said.
In 2023, Tomar relocated to Bengaluru, securing an administrative role as a plant lead for a subsidiary of a clothing giant, Raymond. He continued living “undercover”, police said.
“He was earning a monthly salary of Rs 1.6 lakh; yet he ensured his mobile phone and rental agreement were registered on different numbers,” police said.
During his time in Bengaluru, he met a woman, Pinky Singh, and the two got married. Police said Pinky was entirely unaware of his previous conviction or his status as a fugitive.
Case background
According to Punjab Police, the case dates to 2013 when Tomar was serving as a captain in the 12 Bihar Regiment station near the Pakistan border in Abohar, Fazilka.
Just four to five months after his marriage to Shweta Singh, Tomar poisoned and killed her due to marital discord. He initially attempted to pass off the death as suicide, but an investigation led to his conviction in 2014, and he was awarded life imprisonment.
Tomar remained in jail until 2019, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended his sentence pending an appeal.
However, in 2022, the court dismissed his appeal and upheld his life sentence. Instead of surrendering to serve the remainder of his term, Tomar, who had been living in Zirakpur as a property agent while on bail, chose to flee, police said.
The breakthrough
The momentum for his arrest shifted when Tomar’s father-in-law, Ram Naresh, moved the high court in 2024 to demand action. The court subsequently directed the Punjab director general of police to file an affidavit by April explaining the failure to apprehend the convict.
“For the longest time, the PO (Proclaimed Offender) team of police had been working on leads to nab him. But there was no connection found between any of the numbers, addresses or families,” police said.
In response, the Fazilka senior superintendent of police constituted an SIT, headed by SP Dhaliwal. The 15-member team, which included financial analysts and IT assistants, spent over two months analysing years of data, including old photographs and records, using systems like NATGRID to find a lead, police said.
“While analysing, we traced all the phone numbers Tomar used… including his father’s and mother’s phone numbers. We found a PAN card. We issued a notice to all Indian banks, hoping to find a connection with the PAN card,” Dhaliwal said.
“While all banks denied any link, it was ICICI Bank that told us there is a bank account connected to this PAN, and every month, Rs 1.6 lakh is credited from a clothing company to this account,” he added.
Tomar’s phone numbers were also linked to random individuals, only to throw off the police. However, he left behind one financial footprint.
“We checked the CDR location, which showed the phone number was first active in Bengaluru, and then it got active in Pandhurna, in Madhya Pradesh. But we still did not have his exact location,” said Dhaliwal.
“His bank details were analysed at length. The statement showed a payment of Rs 500 for an LPG cylinder refill from Bharat Gas on 20 February 2026,” he added.
By coordinating with the gas agency, police used the transaction ID to get the customer ID, followed by the dealership ID, to obtain a specific delivery address in the Pandhurna district of Madhya Pradesh, where Tomar had recently moved to work at another plant, Dhaliwal said.
On 25 March, Tomar was arrested with the help of Madhya Pradesh Police. He was living in company quarters.
“Tomar revealed he purposely chose remote areas in small city factory jobs because he believed it was easier to hide there than in a major hub,” said Dhaliwal.
Tomar has since been brought back to Fazilka and central judicial custody.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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