Delhi’s ‘taxi killer’ finally caught after 24 years: Who is Ajay Lamba? Man who sedated, killed cab drivers and vanished
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Delhi’s ‘taxi killer’ finally caught after 24 years: Who is Ajay Lamba? Man who sedated, killed cab drivers and vanished")
Delhi Police (Representative image) Photograph: (PTI)
Lamba, now 48, is linked to four murder-cum-robbery cases dating back to 2001, when he and his gang targeted taxi drivers across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
After running from police for nearly 24 years, Ajay Lamba, a serial killer accused of murdering taxi drivers and selling stolen vehicles in Nepal, has finally been arrested by Delhi Police, according to an NDTV report. Lamba, now 48, is linked to four murder-cum-robbery cases dating back to 2001, when he and his gang targeted taxi drivers across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
His method: sedate, kill, and smuggle
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Aditya Gautam, “The accused, a notorious robber-cum-murderer, was involved in four brutal robbery-cum-murder cases targeting cab drivers… He would hire taxis with accomplices, murder the drivers, rob the vehicles, and dispose of the bodies in remote mountainous regions to avoid detection.”
His crimes followed a pattern, he would hire a taxi, sedate and kill the driver, dump the body in an isolated area, and then smuggle the stolen car into Nepal to sell it. Only one body has been recovered so far.
Life on the run: Nepal, Dehradun, and beyond
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Lamba dropped out of school in Class 6 and drifted into crime. He met two of his key accomplices, Dhirendra and Dilip Negi, in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. By 2001, the trio was targeting cab drivers across northern India. To avoid capture, Lamba fled to Nepal, where he lived for 10 years (2008–2018). He later settled in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, with his family. Despite the mounting crimes, he managed to stay under the radar. Police say he never revealed his true identity or absconding status, not even during his recent arrests.
New crimes and final capture
Police suspect Lamba and his gang may have committed more murders than the four officially linked to them. In 2020, Lamba allegedly became involved in the ganja supply chain, transporting drugs from Odisha to Delhi and other regions. He was arrested in 2021 under the NDPS Act in Delhi’s Sagarpur, and again in 2024 for a jewellery shop robbery in Behrampur, Odisha, both times he was granted bail. “He never disclosed his involvement in the 2001 murders,” police said. After years of surveillance using both manual tracking and technical inputs, a Delhi crime branch team finally managed to arrest him.
