NEW DELHI: A notorious criminal, who claimed to have been on a mission to kill Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat, was nabbed from Sangli in Maharashtra on Wednesday. The accused, Rajesh Dalal alias Raj alias Lucky (28), had escaped from the Tis Hazari court complex where he was being produced for trial.Dalal had claimed in front of journalists that he was planning to kill Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat since she had defamed the Jat community.
The police, however, rubbished this claim and called it a publicity stunt.
"Dalal is an educated, modern-day criminal. He has numerous cases registered against him including escape from custody, armed robbery, kidnapping, attempt to murder, assault on police officers on duty and criminal intimidation,"said Neeraj Thakur, DCP (crime branch). Dalal, originally from Nangloi, had graduated in commerce from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana and started to crime in 1999, when he kidnapped his own estranged wife from her Paschim Vihar residence. The woman was rescued later on, and Dalal then kidnapped her brother and sought a huge ransom in an attempt to seek vengeance. The boy was rescued and Rajesh was arrested for the first time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.As an undertrial in a petrol pump robbery case in 2005, Dalal had managed to escape from the Tis Hazari court premises, prompting the police commissioner to declare a reward of Rs 25,000 on him.