‘Dead man’ arrested!: Delhi Police nab offender who faked his death
New Delhi, Oct 21: In a bizarre twist that sounds straight out of a crime thriller, Delhi Police have arrested a man who had been officially declared “dead” on paper to evade court warrants, Hindustan Times reported.
The arrest has now triggered a full-scale probe by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into how a genuine death certificate was issued for a living person. According to The Hindustan Times, the accused, identified as Virender Vimal, a resident of Mungeshpur village in North West Delhi, was nabbed from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on October 11. Police said Vimal, a “habitual offender” wanted in several cases of house break-ins, theft, burglary, and possession of illegal firearms, had faked his death in 2021 to avoid arrest.
Investigators were stunned to discover that the death certificate Vimal used was authentic, bearing official MCD stamps and signatures. The document recorded his date of death as August 24, 2021. “The certificate was found to be genuine and officially issued. We have written to MCD officials, including a former councillor from Outer Delhi, in connection with the case,” a Delhi Police Crime Branch officer told The Hindustan Times.
Following the revelations, the MCD has ordered a detailed internal inquiry into how the certificate passed through verification. A senior MCD official told the newspaper that a committee is being formed “to check how this certificate was generated and if more checks and balances can be added to plug this loophole.” Officials explained that many rural cremation grounds in areas such as Narela and Najafgarh lack formal documentation, allowing certificates to be issued based on local witness signatures rather than institutional proof. “This looks like a one-in-a-million case, but we are looking at how to make the process more secure,” the MCD official was quoted as saying. According to The Hindustan Times, Delhi Police had been tracking Vimal for nearly a year after noticing discrepancies in the death record. The civic body, meanwhile, is reviewing all procedural gaps in the death certification process to prevent similar frauds in the future.
