Kanpur: Police arrested a fugitive carrying a Rs 25,000 reward in connection with the city’s Rs 1,000 crore Nazul land scam on Thursday. The accused, Rev Kumar Deepak, 56, was nabbed in Amritsar. Additional DCP (East) Shiva Singh said police had received information that Deepak, who allegedly sold Nazul land worth Rs 1,000 crore for Rs 250 crore using forged documents, was hiding in Amritsar and Himachal Pradesh.He had been evading police for a long time, changing hideouts across Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Despite multiple notices sent by police, the accused failed to appear before the court. A reward of Rs 25,000 had been declared on him. A non-bailable warrant (NBW) was also issued by the court, following which a team from Kotwali Police was dispatched, which subsequently arrested him and brought him to the city on transit remand.ADCP stated that the arrested accused Rev Deepak Kumar is also the secretary of Amritsar Diocesan Trust and had scripted the entire criminal scheme. While detailing the land documents, ADCP said that nazul land (Arazi numbers 69, 69A, 69B, and 69C) located in Civil Lines had been fully declared govt property by the state in 2024 itself. Despite this, in 2025, a syndicate of fraudsters collectively sold this govt property through illegal means.The estimated market value of this entire prime location property is reported to be approximately Rs 1,000 to 1,200 crore. Police investigation revealed that Rev Deepak Kumar, secretary of Amritsar Diocesan Trust, appointed a person named Sunil Masih as his chief power of attorney to execute this scam. Subsequently, Sunil Masih, misusing this power of attorney, sold this govt land in 2025 to three major buyers named Narendra Singh, Jitendra Singh, and Nagendra Singh.Another key accused Jacob, involved in this entire syndicate’s operation, had already died due to illness before the formal FIR was registered in the case. ADCP Shiva Singh stated that after the exposure of this major scam, a named FIR was lodged in December 2025 at Kotwali police station by the Lekhpal of the concerned area. Following registration of the case, multiple police teams had been working to trace the absconding accused and connect the links of the scam.The ADCP, said that all three accused land buyers had filed anticipatory bail petitions in court, from where they got relief. Meanwhile, Sunil Masih, the key aide of chief accused Rev Deepak Kumar, had already been promptly arrested by police and sent to jail. Cops are also searching for other associates of this syndicate involved in preparing the forged documents.
