He changed his identity and altered his appearance to avoid detection. It worked too as he secured a job, drawing a handsome salary every month. However, Sandeep Tomar, a former Captain of the Indian Army, absconding for four years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld life term awarded to him for murdering his wife, made two mistakes.While opening a new salary account, he used his original PAN. He used the bank account to pay for LPG cylinder refill. These two mistakes did him in as a Punjab Police team nabbed him from Madhya Pradesh’s Pandhurna district. A court in Abohar on Saturday sent him to judicial custody.It all began in 2013 when Tomar, a resident of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and then with 12 Bihar, was posted at Abohar cantonment. He strangled his wife of five months, Shveta Singh, to death and tried to pass it off as a suicide. Subsequent police investigation, however, proved that he had murdered her.In 2014, a local court held him guilty of murder and awarded life imprisonment, following which he was dismissed by the Army and lodged in Ferozepur jail. He spent five years in jail before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, pending his appeal, released him on bail in 2019. The high court in 2022 upheld the sentence but Tomar never surrendered.Tomar’s father-in-law, Ram Naresh, moved high court in 2024 demanding that he be arrested. The HC later ordered Punjab DGP to file an affidavit by April 8, 2026 explaining the steps taken to take Tomar into custody.Fazilka SSP then constituted a special investigation team (SIT), headed by SP, Punjab Bureau of Investigation, Fazilka, Aaswant Singh to trace and arrest the absconding convict.“During investigation, the SIT sought help from the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) and found the PAN issued to Tomar,” said an officer associated with the investigation.Story continues below this adNotices were issued to all public and private banks to obtain account numbers linked with that PAN. A private bank reported an account linked with that PAN, the officer said. An analysis of the transaction statement revealed that salary was being credited to the account every month from a reputed firm. The call data record analysis of the mobile number attached with that bank account revealed that he was living in Pandhurna. However, his exact location could not be pinpointed through tower location.“His bank statement also revealed that he was getting LPG cylinder refill from an agency of Bharat Gas. The gas agency was contacted and the delivery address was obtained. This information was shared with Superintendent of Police, Pandhurna, and the convict was immediately arrested by the local police,” the officer said.A team of Fazilka police later took Tomar’s custody and brought him back to Punjab.Police investigation revealed that after being released from jail on suspension of sentence, Tomar worked in Zirakpur for a while as a real estate agent. After a while he moved to Odisha.Story continues below this adAfter learning that his appeal against his sentence had been dismissed by the high court, he moved to Bengaluru and started working there before moving to same firm’s unit in Madhya Pradesh. He was living there with his second wife whom he had married while being on the run from the law.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Punjab