The arrest of proclaimed offender Durga Bahadur Bhat Chetri nearly two decades after the abduction and murder of engineering student Shyamal Mandal may inject fresh momentum into a case whose evidentiary foundation has recently come under judicial scrutiny.
Chetri, also known as Deepak, was tracked down and arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday after allegedly remaining absconding since the early stages of the probe into the 2005 kidnapping-for-ransom and murder of Mandal, a student of the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram. According to the agency, he had concealed his identity after the crime, assumed the name Suraj B. Bhatt, got married and settled in Nagpur in an effort to avoid detection.
The timing of the arrest is significant. It comes after the Kerala High Court suspended the life sentence of Mohammed Ali, the second accused in the case and a resident of Middle Andaman, holding that key parts of the trial court’s reasoning did not complete the chain of proof required in a case based entirely on circumstantial evidence.
Ali had been convicted by the CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram in April 2022 under Sections 120B, 364A, 302 and 379 of the IPC. Mandal, a BTech student from the Andamans, had gone missing from his hostel on October 13, 2005. His father later received ransom calls demanding Rs 20 lakh. On October 23, his body was recovered from an isolated part of Thiruvananthapuram.
The prosecution case against Ali rested largely on circumstantial evidence, including alleged links to fake SIM cards, ransom calls and contact with the absconding co-accused. But while the Kerala High Court noted that suspicion against him remained strong, it said suspicion alone could not substitute for proof. The bench found that some of the trial court’s findings, including claims that Ali had been seen at a public phone booth and that he had transported the victim’s handset to Chennai, were not supported by evidence.
It is this judicial finding that gives Chetri’s arrest added importance. Legal experts said the CBI may now get an opportunity to test the existing record against the account of a man who was allegedly part of the conspiracy but had remained outside the reach of the court process for years.
“Where a case rests substantially on circumstantial evidence, the arrest of an absconding co-accused can be important,” said a criminal lawyer familiar with trial procedure. “If the agency is able to recover fresh material, corroborative links or disclosures that fit into the existing record, it may help strengthen parts of the evidentiary chain that were earlier found wanting.”
Another legal expert said the arrest does not automatically alter the position against Ali, but it may still prove consequential. “The significance lies in whether the investigators can gather admissible material that clarifies the conspiracy, the sequence of events, or the roles of the accused. If that happens, it could have a bearing on how the prosecution narrative evolves from here,” the lawyer said.
Chetri’s arrest may also help investigators revisit elements that remained incomplete because of his prolonged absence. With the CBI expected to seek custody before the jurisdictional court in Ernakulam, the agency may now examine whether any new evidence can be gathered on the planning of the abduction, the ransom calls, the movement of phones or SIM cards, or the events leading to Mandal’s killing.
The case was initially investigated by the Kerala Police before being transferred to the CBI on the direction of the Kerala High Court. The agency re-registered the case on December 31, 2008, and subsequently filed chargesheets against the accused. But Chetri’s long absence meant that proceedings against him did not advance in the same way as they did against Mohammed Ali.
Mohammed Ali, who according to local sources is now a successful businessman based in Sri Vijaya Puram and runs a large retail and wholesale business, remains central to the long-running case.
The key question now is whether Chetri’s custodial interrogation yields material that strengthens the prosecution’s case. If it does, the arrest could become more than a long-delayed procedural breakthrough. It could provide investigators with a renewed opportunity to reinforce the evidentiary basis of a case that has for years swung between conviction, appeal and doubt.
