The Kerala police team with the accused, who had been on the run for almost 2 decades.When Kerala Police entered the dusty, weather-beaten godown of a rice mill in Assam’s Dhemaji district this September, they had only one question for the bald man with a grey beard found working there: “Are you Dilip Rajak?”On September 20, the Malappuram crime branch police arrested Rajak, a 65-year-old migrant worker from Bihar, on charges of murdering the manager of a saw mill in 2007. For investigators, the arrest, which took them some 3,600 km, meant closing a nearly two-decade-long investigation that spanned Kerala, Assam and Bihar.Another accused from Bihar, Sanichar Baita, is still on the run, police said.“Dilip had always feared that one day he would be caught by police,” Crime Branch Inspector Ameerali V said. “We had approached him after completing the entire fieldwork. With help from the Assam police, he was taken into custody. He did not resist.”The crimeAccording to the police, Dilip and Sanichar moved to Kerala in early December 2007 in search of a job after working at rice mills in Assam. In Keralam, the two found a job at a sawmill at Perinthalmanna, where they gave their names as Umesh and Vinod from Assam.When the sawmill closed for a few days in mid-December, the two migrants decided to stay on, as did their manager Balakrishnan. Around the same time, a bank near the sawmill witnessed a robbery attempt, police said.When the saw mill opened a week later, the two migrants and Balakrishnan were found missing.Story continues below this ad“Initially, nobody at the mill thought much of it. Balakrishnan had told the people at the mill that he would leave for Coimbatore, while his family at Vadakara in Kozhikode thought he was still there,” Inspector Ameerali V said.On December 27, local workers at the mill found his body, hidden under a pile of sawdust. “The body was covered with a cloth given to the migrant workers to sleep on,” Ameerali said.In the investigation that followed, police found the two workers, who identified themselves as Umesh and Vinod, missing, and further inquiry into their background led to dead ends. But the calls the duo made back home to Bihar allegedly led to their first major lead.“The duo didn’t have a phone and made calls from a public pay phone,” Ameerali said. “The police had then found that the calls were made to Bihar, and realised that the duo was from there and not Assam.”Story continues below this adIn February 2008, investigators traced the calls to the village of Dabhra under the Tarabari police station in Bihar’s Araria, only to realise the names they used were fake.“Police realised that they were Dilip Rajak and Sannichar Bitta, but by then, Dilip had already left the village with his wife and son,” Ameerali said. “Locals told the police that the two had not visited their village and did not contact families.”After this, police continued to periodically visit Assam but without success. In 2015, the crime branch took over the case.“Our teams went to Bihar in 2021 and even in 2025, but we found that the suspects kept away from the village,” the official said.Story continues below this adBreakthroughThat changed recently, when the police used Gandiva, an AI-driven analytical and search engine deployed over India’s National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), to unify, cross-reference, and analyse massive volumes of security, financial, and demographic data.An intelligence-sharing platform, NATGRID connects multiple government agencies and databases, including Railways, police and telecom, helping enable intelligence-led investigations.According to Malappuram Crime Branch Superintendent of Police M P Mohanachandran Nair, investigators fed an old photo of Dilip into AI to age him and searched the database. That allegedly helped them strike gold — they found a SIM card in Dilip’s name.“When we secured Call Data Records, our suspicion grew. We found that the person changed SIM cards at least 15 times over the years, but made few calls and had fewer messages. Later, we identified the phone’s tower location,” Ameerali said.Story continues below this adOn September 20, a four-member crime branch team arrested Dilip in Assam with help from local police and brought him back to Malappuram on September 28.Investigators say the bank robbery could be linked to the 2007 murder.“The victim, Balakrishnan, might have seen their robbery attempt. The murder happened 14 days after they joined the sawmill. In Assam and in Bihar, the duo were known by their true identity, but in Kerala, they used a fake identity. That indicates they had a criminal intention,” Ameerali said.Shaju Philip is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, where he leads the publication's coverage from Kerala. With over 25 years of experience in mainstream journalism, he is one of the most authoritative voices on the socio-political, religious, and developmental landscape of South India. Expertise, Experience, and Authority Decades of Regional Specialization: Shaju has spent more than two decades documenting the "Kerala Model" of development, its complex communal dynamics, and its high-stakes political environment. Key Coverage Beats: His extensive reporting portfolio includes: Political & Governance Analysis: In-depth tracking of the LDF and UDF coalitions, the growth of the BJP in the state, and the intricate workings of the Kerala administration. Crime & Investigative Journalism: Noted for his coverage of high-profile cases such as the gold smuggling probe, political killings, and the state’s counter-terrorism efforts regarding radicalization modules. Crisis Management: He has led ground-level reporting during major regional crises, including the devastating 2018 floods, the Nipah virus outbreaks, and the Covid-19 pandemic response. ... Read More Tags:Kerala Police