Nearly 16 years after a gruesome murder case shook Delhi, police have arrested the prime accused, Ashiq Ali, from Surat, Gujarat. The 2009 case had captured national attention when the beheaded body of a man was found stuffed inside a blood-stained iron box on a Delhi street.
According to The Indian Express, the Delhi Police Crime Branch nabbed Ali on November 5 from Surat, where he had been living with his family for the past four years while working as a tailor.
The 2009 Murder Case
The case dates back to January 5, 2009, when police discovered a locked iron box near an old age home in Bindapur Extension, Delhi. Upon opening it, they found the headless body of a man in his 30s. The victim was later identified as Harish Chand, son of Hari Prakash.
Police investigations revealed that Harish had gone out with his cousin, Banarsi Lal, on a motorcycle earlier that day and never returned. Later the same afternoon, Hari Prakash received a call from his son’s number demanding ransom for his release. Before he could negotiate, the caller hung up.
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That evening, police informed the family that a headless body matching Harish’s description had been recovered. On January 8, the victim’s father identified the body by his son’s hands and feet. The postmortem confirmed it was a murder. About a month later, on February 6, Harish’s severed head was discovered in bushes near Chanakya Place.
How Police Traced the Accused
Investigators immediately suspected Banarsi Lal and his close friend Ashiq Ali. Banarsi was arrested soon after, but Ashiq fled and remained absconding for over a decade and a half.
According to DCP (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam, the breakthrough came when surveillance teams traced Ashiq’s digital footprint to Gujarat. A team located him in Bhaiya Nagar, Surat, on November 4, 2025, and arrested him the next day.
During interrogation, Ashiq confessed that a dispute over money between Harish and his cousin Banarsi led to the brutal killing. Together, they murdered Harish and decapitated his body to destroy evidence. After the crime, Ashiq kept changing his location to evade arrest.
Case Status and Judicial Action
The investigation had earlier led to Banarsi Lal’s conviction in 2022. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder. With Ashiq’s arrest, Delhi Police hope to finally close the long-pending case that had haunted investigators for nearly 16 years.
The arrest also highlights how persistent intelligence work and digital tracking helped bring a fugitive to justice after years of disappearance.