Fugitive Ex-Army Captain Sandeep Tomar Arrested After 4 Years Using Digital Trail in Wife Murder Case

Sandeep Tomar, a former Army captain convicted of murdering his wife, was arrested after nearly four years on the run in a joint operation involving police and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). He was apprehended from Pandhurna district in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

Tomar was convicted in 2014 for the murder of his wife, Shweta Singh, who was found dead in 2013 at the Abohar cantonment in Punjab, just five months into their marriage. Initially presented as a case of suicide, forensic evidence later confirmed that she had been strangled. Following his conviction, Tomar was sentenced to life imprisonment and dismissed from military service.

After spending five years in Ferozepur jail, he was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2019 while his appeal was pending. However, when the High Court upheld his life sentence in September 2022, Tomar failed to surrender and went into hiding.

During his time as a fugitive, Tomar reportedly lived under a false identity, working across multiple cities including Zirakpur, Odisha, and Bengaluru, before eventually settling in Pandhurna. There, he was employed as a manager at a juice factory and is also believed to have remarried during this period.

Investigators said his arrest was made possible through key digital traces. Despite using a fake identity, Tomar used his original PAN card to open a salary bank account, which was later used for routine transactions, including booking an LPG cylinder refill. This activity triggered alerts monitored by authorities.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT), working in coordination with NATGRID, tracked financial records linked to his identity. The bank account showed consistent salary deposits from a Madhya Pradesh-based firm. His exact location was confirmed after police obtained the LPG delivery address and corroborated it with mobile tower data associated with the linked phone number.

Following confirmation of his whereabouts, Fazilka police coordinated with local authorities in Pandhurna, leading to his arrest at his residence. He was subsequently brought to Punjab on transit remand and produced before a court in Abohar, where he was sent to judicial custody on March 28, 2026.

The arrest brings closure to a prolonged manhunt that gained urgency after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the state police to provide an update on the case by April 2026.