New Delhi: A 48-year-old man, who had been absconding for over 29 years after killing a 58-year-old man over a monetary dispute in west Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar, was arrested from Lucknow by a Crime Branch team, the Delhi Policesaid on Monday.Police said the suspect frequently changed locations across Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.Police said the suspect, identified as Mohammad Fahim, frequently changed locations across Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh and even used an assumed name “Ali Bhai” to evade arrest following the murder in March 1997. He had been working as a plaster of paris (PoP) artisan for livelihood, Crime Branch officials involved in the raids said.Special commissioner of police (crime) HGS Dhaliwal said, “It was a blind cold blooded murder case because the crime pre-dated modern digital databases and technological investigation tools. Also, no recent photographs or reliable identification records of the suspect were available.”On March 14, 1997, police recovered the body of an unidentified man from a wooden bed box in a room at TC Camp in Raghubir Nagar after locals informed them about a murder.A murder case was registered at the Rajouri Garden police station and the deceased was identified as Sharif Hasan Khan, a 58-year-old resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad (now Ayodhya) district. Khan was a salesman at a garment shop in Rajouri Garden, police added.Probe revealed that Khan and the suspect, Fahim, lived in the same neighbourhood and were acquainted. Fahim had come to Delhi in search of employment, a few months before the murder, police said.“On March 13, 1997, a dispute arose between the two after Fahim allegedly stole Khan’s money. The dispute turned violent, and Fahim repeatedly assaulted Khan with an iron rod, strangled him with a rope, and then stuffed his body inside a wooden bed box before fleeing,” said Dhaliwal, adding that a Delhi court declared Fahim a proclaimed offender on October 14, 1997.According to Dhaliwal, the case was recently transferred to the Crime Branch’s central range team, led by inspector Sunil Kumar Kalakhande. The team members camped in Fahim’s village, developing local intelligence that confirmed he was alive and occasionally visited his hometown.The investigator also obtained Khan’s new mobile number and put it on surveillance. Technical investigation established Fahim’s presence in Lucknow. A raid was conducted and Fahim was arrested from Thakurgang on July 3, police said.“Fahim confessed to killing Khan over the monetary dispute. After the murder, he first fled to Nagpur and subsequently lived in different cities, including Mumbai and Lucknow, while concealing his identity under the alias Ali Bhai,” added Dhaliwal.