Written by Manish SahuLucknow | December 14, 2025 02:59 PM IST 3 min readPolice arrested three men following a tip-off on Saturday and sent them to judicial custody. (File/representational)In a 42-year-old case involving the killing of five members of a family in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district, the police arrested three convicts who had been absconding after a month-long covert operation where two policemen posed as labour contractors in Dharera village and gained residents’ trust, blending seamlessly into their everyday life.On Saturday, the two undercover policemen received specific inputs, and additional police teams were rushed to the village. In a coordinated operation, the police arrested the three men—Rajpal, his brother Sajan Pal, and their neighbour Manikchand, all aged over 70. The police said the accused were produced before a court, which sent all three of them to judicial custody.“The two policemen were deployed undercover as labour contractors and stayed in the village for over a month. Although we were receiving intermittent inputs about the convicts’ whereabouts, we waited for them to return to their native village,” said Alok Kumar Singh, Station House Officer of the Etmadpur police. “We also took the help of an NGO to convey a message to their family members that there was no threat and that assistance would be provided, which helped lower their guard.”Singh said that locals recently informed the undercover officers that one of the convicts had arrived in the village. The police began discreet surveillance and waited for the others to return. “When the second convict came, we moved in and arrested both. Based on the information provided by them, we subsequently traced and apprehended the third convict as well,” he added.The SHO further said that after obtaining bail in the case, the convicts had initially appeared before the court irregularly but later stopped attending proceedings over the past three years.The accused revealed that they had been living under assumed identities in Firozabad and Delhi, where they had settled with their family members to evade arrest, said the police.According to the police, on August 3, 1983, two children and three other members of a family were killed with sharp-edged weapons inside their home in Dharera village. Investigators found that one of the victims, Sukh Ram, a farmer, was embroiled in a long-standing property dispute with his uncle, Kunwar Pal Singh, which eventually turned fatal. The victims included Sukh Ram’s elderly mother.Senior Sub-Inspector Shivaji said the Etmadpur police had identified the involvement of Kunwar Pal Singh and seven others, including his sons Raj Pal and Sagan Pal, in the crime. They were arrested and sent to jail. A court convicted all eight accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment in 1985. Challenging their conviction, the accused moved the Allahabad High Court and were granted bail around two years after the sentence, according to the police.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:UP crime