Key Points
Fugitive Salim Wastik, wanted in a 1995 murder case, evaded arrest for over 25 years by faking his death and assuming a new identity.
He lived openly in Ghaziabad as a YouTuber and shop owner before police linked him to the case using Aadhaar details, fingerprints, and old records.
Delhi Police reopened the cold case, leading to his arrest after a tip-off and fresh investigation exposed decades of deception.
After evading the police and concealing his identity for almost 25 years, Salim Wastik has finally been arrested in relation to a 1995 Sandeep Bansal murder case. The popular YouTuber who refers to himself as an ‘ex-Muslim’ is known for his anti-Islam content and criticism of the religion.
Wastik has been living in Ghaziabad’s Loni region for the past three decades under a false identity. Following a tip-off, the police apprehended him, and subsequent verification of his identity via old records, fingerprints, and photographs were also done that helped implicate him in a 35-years old murder case.
The case in relation to which Wastik was arrested dates back to more than three decades ago. On January 20, 1995, Sandeep Bansal, the 13-year-old son of a cement businessman, was abducted while he was on his way to school. The following day, the boy’s parents received a ransom call demanding Rs 30,000 for his safe release. The abductor (now identified as Salim) also threatened against involving the police in this matter.
However, despite the demand the family informed the police. Sandeep was murdered and his body was found a few days later in a drain near the Mustafabad region in North-East Delhi.
As police investigation into the matter proceeded, officials arrested Salim ‘Khan’ (which was his identity back when he was first apprehended), who worked as an martial arts instructor in the boy’s school at that time, along with his associate, Anil, as suspects. Salim confessed to having committed the crime during the interrogation, and also implicated Anil. Both were held guilty of the abduction, extortion, and murder of the boy, and were sentenced to life imprisonment by court in 1995.
However, five years later, in 2000, after being awarded interim bail by the Delhi High Court, Salim refused to comply by failing to return to custody, thus effectively jumping the bail order. He has been on the run ever since.
Salim has been hiding in plain sight and managed to evade arrest for over 25 years. He declared himself dead and took on the new identity of Salim Ahmed, eventually adopting the name of ‘Saleem Wastik.’
Instead of vanishing in thin air as one might expect a criminal on the run would, Saleem instead chose to come into the limelight. Changing his name from Salim Khan to Salim Ahmed, his initial years on the run were spent moving across various regions across Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, working as an almirah (cabinet) maker and later opening a ladies' clothes shop in Loni.
Under his newest moniker of Salim Wastik, he rose to national prominence as a popular digital content creator on YouTube and as a ‘social activist.’ His content, which passed off sharp remarks on both religion and terrorism, soon made him a known figure in the digital media sphere.
Saleem’s controversial remark on religion made him the target of ‘religious fanatics’, according to the police, as in last month a brutal knife assault by two assailants left Saleem in a critical state. The two individuals, who both carried rewards of 1 lakhs each, were killed in two separate police encounters.
Such was the life of Saleem that a biopic project based on him helmed by a Bollywood producer was well underway. He received an advance amount of Rs.15 Lakhs for the project.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Police Crime Branch reopened a bunch of cases as part of its review into old, dead-end cases. One of the reopened cases was the 1995 Sandeep Bansal murder case.
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An investigation helmed by Inspector Robin Tyagi, under ACP Sanjay Kumar Nagpal and supervised by DCP Sanjeev Yadav, identified Salim Wastik as the fugitive.
When Salim got himself an Aadhar card in 2015, he had been ‘dead’ for over 15 years. Even though he changed his name, his father’s name Noor Hasan was still retained on his Aadhar. Police also uncovered other related details, such as the name of his wife, Afsana, and an identity card bearing his photograph back when he worked as a martial arts trainer.
Police rechecked all of this newer evidence in light of the court details in the late 1990s, and found a match.
“We never imagined he was the same man when he became popular on YouTube, even after he was attacked by two men in Loni. We only had a decades-old martial arts ID card of Salim Khan in court records,” said an officer involved in the arrest.
After investigating officials visited his hometown, where relatives confirmed that he had been ‘dead’ for years, the police received a tip-off that linked ‘Salim Wastik’ to ‘Salim Khan’, which was initially disregarded by the officials. However, his father and wife’s name, his old identity card, as well his YouTube content wherein he would frequently mention the Kung Fu martial art aroused suspicion, which eventually helped implicate him in the 1995 murder case.
Police said they tracked Salim Wastik, and matched his fingerprints with Salim Khan’s bail records, leading to his arrest.
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