A Timeline Of Bunty Chor’s Escape From Police For Nearly Three Decades

The notorious thief Devender Singh, infamously also known as  “Bunty Chor”, was nabbed by the Delhi Police from Kanpur Dehat in Uttar Pradesh recently in connection with two cases of thefts in the national capital, Delhi.  

He has been arrested over a dozen times in at least 500 burglary cases around the world and mostly in Delhi. He had just walked out of jail after serving a 10-year prison term in one such theft case. But barely 40 days later, the Delhi police managed to capture him again in another burglary case. 

But considering that Singh has managed to escape from custody or from being taken into custody on at least six occasions, it would be interesting to see how long the super thief remains in police custody this time.

Here is a brief timeline of his escape and the police chase. 

According to reports with police testimonies, Devender Singh was first arrested by the New Delhi district police in 1993 for burglary and brought to the special staff office. However, he found the staff briefly busy on one occasion and escaped.

He was arrested again next year in 1994 from Chennai but then he allegedly ingested a lizard with the intention to get hospitalised. At the hospital, he used a syringe to unlock his handcuffs and escaped, according to a report by the Indian Express.

Subsequently, he was arrested in Chandigarh 20 days later but escaped yet again in a scooter he stole from one of the inspectors. 

In 2002, he broke into a businessman's house in Saket and stole several items, including a framed picture of the businessman's wife and daughter. According to media reports, he hung the photo frame at his apartment in Mayur Vihar and told visitors they were his 'family' to avoid suspicion. He was arrested for a brief period and then released.

In 2007, he was spotted in Bangalore after allegedly lifting a luxury car and other valuables from an NRI's residence in Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram. However, as some police personnel were busy verifying his identity after stopping him in Bangalore, Devender Singh allegedly found the chance to slip away.

In the same year, when the Mumbai Police were taking him to a police station, Bunty allegedly asked them to allow him to take his car along. He also allegedly meddled with the fuse of his car to stop the engine, requested the accompanying policemen to push his car, and then drove away all alone while the policemen watched, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

He was arrested in 2007 after he targeted people in five-star hotels. After his release from jail in 2010, Bunty posed himself as reformed and told media persons he had got “enlightenment” and could see the universe. But police officials were unimpressed and they kept him under surveillance discreetly.

In between all of this, Bunty made a cameo appearance as a contestant in the popular reality show "Bigg Boss Season 4" in 2010. He also gained popularity after a Bollywood movie titled ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’, starring Abhay Deol, was released in 2008, based on his life.

In 2013, he was arrested again by the Kerala police from a hotel in Pune for burgling a city-based businessman's residence. 

A court in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram then sentenced him to 10 years in prison, in 2017. According to the prosecution, Bunty broke into the businessman's residence by disabling and deactivating high-tech security and surveillance systems, a report by NDTV said. He stole a laptop, other gadgets including two mobile phones as well as a luxury car worth nearly ₹ 28 lakh, the report said.

In 2017, while he was serving the 10-year prison term, he had to be admitted to a hospital after he allegedly tried to consume broken pieces of bulb along with his food, following which prison authorities registered a case against him for attempting suicide.

He was released from jail on March 3 this year after serving his sentence. 

Barely a few weeks later, the Delhi police chased him to put him behind bars again after he broke into two properties in Greater Kailash II in south Delhi where he also stole a car, cellphones and other electronic goods. 

Even then, Singh allegedly tried to talk his way out of the situation by making up stories while interacting with the police. 

(With inputs from PTI)