‘Chhabbi Lal, come here’: How a keypad phone, old photo ended a murder suspect’s 35-year run

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Before long, he was on the run for murder, shuttling between four cities before settling in Ludhiana 14 years ago. The Indian Express does a deep dive into this cold case and how cops tracked him down. Written by: Alok Singh7 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Apr 22, 2026 08:14 AM IST Police said during his time on the run, he would occasionally meet his wife and other relatives. His second child, a son, was born during this period. The son is now married and has a child of his own, aged one. Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT April 10. Around 6 pm. A four-storey building near the regional passport office in Punjab’s Ludhiana, which houses coaching centres and offices of private firms, was being closely watched. A 62-year-old man, of a slim build and average height (5 feet 7 inches), who stood there smoking a beedi, was the target. Suddenly, someone called out, “Chhabbi Lal, come here.” The man turned around, only for a police team from Delhi to swoop in and arrest him. The Delhi Police had been looking for Lal, aka Chavi Lal Verma in their records, for 35 long years. In August 1991, police said, he had allegedly murdered his landlady and injured her teenage son while attempting to rob them in East Delhi’s Trilokpuri. Police said Verma had moved to Ludhiana 14 years ago and was working as a caretaker-cum-guard of a commercial building — where he was caught from — for Rs 15,000 a month. He had been living in a barsati on the terrace for the past few months. Over the years, police said he moved between several cities to evade arrest. Recounting the case, police said it was early 1991 when Verma, then aged 27, came to Delhi from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur in search of work. He found employment at a curtain shop in East Delhi and took a room on rent in West Vinod Nagar. It was a single-storey house owned by Amarjeet Suri, who lived abroad. His wife, Geeta Suri, and their 18-year-old son Montu lived in the house. According to police, Verma had arranged the accommodation through someone known to him from his village. Everything changed on August 2 that year. In the dead of the night, police said Verma entered the Suri’s home to rob them. But Geeta woke up and raised an alarm, so he allegedly attacked her with a meat cleaver. In the ensuing commotion, Montu woke up too and tried to intervene, leading to a scuffle with Verma. According to the handwritten FIR, mother and son sustained critical injuries and were rushed to Lok Nayak Hospital. Geeta was declared dead, Montu was admitted for treatment. When they questioned Verma now, after his arrest, a police officer said he admitted that he fled after believing both victims were dead. Police said he spent the next few hours wandering the streets. When day broke, he escaped to Kolkata by train and stayed there for six-seven months, shuttling between homes of relatives. He then shifted to Mumbai, where he lived in Dharavi and worked as a daily-wage labourer. During this time, he learned that the Delhi Police had conducted a raid at his Sultanpur home. Fearing arrest, police said he moved to Nagpur and found work in an orange orchard. After living there for a few years, he shifted to Goa and worked at various hotels. It was here, police said, that he came into contact with a businessman from Punjab who offered him work at a garment mill in Ludhiana. He decided to move once again. During this period, police said, he procured an Aadhaar card and other identity documents under the name Chhabbi Lal Verma. Over the years, police said they made several efforts to track him down. Right after the murder, a local police officer in East Delhi had identified Verma and tried to nab him, but could not trace him. “In those days, there were no mobile phones or CCTV cameras; all we knew was that Verma had been staying in the house as a tenant,” a Delhi Police officer privy to the case told The Indian Express. Another challenge at the time was the absence of a tenant verification system. As a result, the local police did not have his permanent address. Acting on human intelligence inputs, police managed to reach his home in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, but the trail went cold. Police even questioned his wife, who had a one-year-old daughter with Verma, but she claimed her husband never returned from Delhi. After extensive searches across Delhi and Sultanpur, the accused was declared a proclaimed offender by a city court in Delhi in 1996. The case was eventually transferred to the Cold Cases Cell of the Delhi Police. The Crime Branch, known for cracking unsolved heinous crimes in the city, was recently tasked with solving this case. Six months ago, a team from the Crime Branch’s Inter-State Cell got a break — they found that the family had been getting calls from one particular number. But getting hold of this number proved painstaking, said officers. The team had to go over a dozen mobile phone numbers belonging to Verma’s relatives and acquaintances in Sultanpur to identify the anonymous contact, which was often switched off. Using technical analysis, police learned that the SIM card was not being used in a smartphone. “We suspected that a keypad mobile phone was being used,” the officer said. The phone number was finally traced to a building in Ludhiana. A team comprising Sub-Inspectors Naresh Kumar and Sunil, along with Head Constables Sunil Kumar, Ashish Malik, Sonu Tomar, and Rajesh Kumar, under the supervision of Inspector Manmeet Malik, was dispatched to the city on April 10. The team operated under the guidance of ACP Ramesh Chander and DCP Aditya Gautam of the Inter-State Cell. They arrived in Ludhiana around noon. Apart from the number, the team had a 14-year-old blurred photograph of Verma obtained during the investigation. For the next six hours, police said, the team kept watch at a commercial complex — which the phone location led them to — trying to identify Verma. At the time, police were unaware he lived on the building’s terrace and worked there. “We suspected that if we called his mobile phone and identified ourselves as Delhi Police, he might flee. That’s why we avoided contacting him,” another officer said. Finally, around 6 pm, police spotted a man, of a similar physique to the old photo they had of Verma, smoking at a shop nearby. The team kept a close watch on his movements. Meanwhile, the man took out a keypad mobile phone and put it back into his pocket. This confirmed the police team’s suspicion. The man left the shop and the team followed silently on foot. At one spot, officers said, he stopped to look at a roadside transformer. “While he was looking at the transformer, a team member shouted ‘Chabbi Lal,’ and he turned around. He was immediately nabbed,” the officer said. When they questioned Verma, police said he admitted that after spending several years on the run and hiding in different cities, he believed he would never be caught. “In other cities, he never used mobile phones, but in Punjab, he bought a keypad mobile phone but often kept it switched off,” the officer said. Police said during his time on the run, he would occasionally meet his wife and other relatives. His second child, a son, was born during this period. The son is now married and has a child of his own, aged one. At the site of the murder in Trilokpuri, there is no sign of the Suri’s or their home. The property has been sold and converted into four different houses. 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