The Delhi cab rape accused Shiv Kumar Yadav gave 60 police officers over a kilometre's chase on foot before they finally caught up with him Sunday evening. The 12 police teams scrambled through a densely-forested stretch called Anand Van in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh to finally catch up with Yadav around 6 pm on Sunday.
Police said that Yadav had gone back to his home in Mathura on Saturday morning and met his family. He is married with three children. He had told his wife that he had got involved in a criminal case without giving her details, asking her to prepare to flee with him.
Yadav is married to the woman who used to be his sister-in-law. After the death of Yadav's brother a few years ago, he married her. She has a 14-year-old son from her previous marriage, and Yadav has two young daughters with her.
Before he was able to leave Mathura with his family, a police team already arrived in his neighbourhood on Saturday night around 10 pm, asking questions. Yadav promptly fled without telling his wife, Delhi police officials familiar with the investigation told HuffPost India.
He reportedly had three phones with him, including one with the Uber app which he kept switched off. He had been communicating with his wife and children using the other phone, while the third phone had been switched on only thrice since Friday night's incidents, cops have found.
By Sunday, more police teams had arrived in Mathura, some 160 kms from Delhi, combing the city with along with the local cops in Uttar Pradesh. One police team was tipped-off that Yadav had been last seen in the outskirts of the Chandpuri Mohalla district, and all the police teams immediately reached the area and finally spotted Yadav.
Around 60 police officers, led by five inspectors and two assistant commissioners of police, ran almost a kilometre through a forest until Yadav ran into an abandoned house and locked himself inside. The police broke into the house and nabbed him.
As the senior police officers still needed positive identification to arrest Yadav, they took pictures of him, reached an area where they could find mobile network, and sent the pictures via Whatsapp to their senior officers in Civil Lines in Delhi.
"We compared the photos with the photos we had of Yadav on file," said Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police of north Delhi. "That confirmed it."
The chase operation was finally called off around 6.10 pm. Verma said that Yadav has confessed to the crime and will be produced in Tis Hazari court on Monday.