Indian police are seeking Pankaj Lamba, the main suspect in the murder of his wife, Harshita Brella, whose body was discovered in the boot of a car in Ilford, east London, on November 10th last year. A reward of 50,000 rupees (£438) has been offered for information leading to Lamba's arrest. Ms. Brella, 24, died from strangulation.

Lamba, 23, was charged with murder, rape, and other offenses in March but is believed to have fled to India. A "look out circular" was issued to prevent him from leaving India. CCTV footage showed Lamba withdrawing 4.3 lakh rupees (£3,760) from a bank on March 4th while wearing a clinical mask, and another withdrawal of 21,000 rupees (£184) without CCTV evidence on the same day. He was later declared a "proclaimed offender" on May 1st for evading arrest.

Lamba's mobile phone was found with a rickshaw driver who claimed to have found it in his vehicle. Lamba's sister and two other relatives were questioned and granted anticipatory bail. Lamba's parents were arrested on charges of cruelty and causing death under India's dowry death laws. Lamba and Ms. Brella had an arranged marriage and moved to the UK in April 2024.

In a separate case, Devender Sharma, also known as Doctor Death, a serial killer who fed his victims to crocodiles, has been arrested in Rajasthan. Sharma, an Ayurvedic practitioner, was arrested while posing as a priest. He had jumped parole last year while serving a life sentence for multiple murders across Delhi, Rajasthan, and Haryana. He is suspected of involvement in over 50 murders.

Sharma and his accomplices murdered taxi and truck drivers, selling their vehicles and disposing of the bodies in the crocodile-infested Hazara Canal. Sharma has a long criminal history, including running an illicit kidney transplant racket between 1995 and 2004, facilitating over 125 illegal transplants. He also formed a gang that stole LPG cylinders and carried out targeted killings of taxi drivers.

Sharma was arrested in 2004 but absconded while on parole multiple times. Most recently, he disappeared after being granted parole in June 2023. The crime branch tracked him to an ashram in Dausa, where he was posing as a spiritual man.