Mainpal Dhilla, a gangster who had evaded Indian authorities, recently married his Cambodian partner Meta Chan
Officials said he fled India on August 29, 2018, using a fake identity in the name of Sonu Kumar. At the request of Haryana Police, the CBI obtained an Interpol Red Notice against Dhilla on November 6, 2024. A request for his provisional arrest was sent to Cambodian authorities through Interpol channels on March 26, 2025. On July 24, the NCB-Phnom Penh informed Indian authorities that Dhilla had been arrested and sought his extradition through diplomatic channels. Dhilla was formally arrested after reaching Delhi in September 2025, bringing to an end years of life as a fugitive abroad. Last Thursday, Dhilla was granted 12-hour custody parole specifically to solemnise the marriage.
He was released from prison at 8am and taken under tight security to a farmhouse in Jhajjar. Dhilla was escorted back to prison. (With agency inputs) You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Delhi | Silver Rate in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi | Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Petrol Price in Delhi | Diesel Price in Delhi | CNG Price in Delhi | LPG Price in Delhi Stay updated with the latest Delhi news.
He established a base in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and according to officials cited by PTI, began running a nightclub there. Jhajjar Sadar SHO Dharmendra told PTI that Dhilla was brought to the farmhouse under tight security for the wedding. “After the ceremony, he was taken back to the prison,” the SHO said.
NEW DELHI: Gangster Mainpal Dhilla’s life has taken him from a life sentence in a Haryana prison to years on the run in Cambodia, where he travelled under a fake identity, established a new life, ran a nightclub and met the woman he would eventually marry. He travelled from Kolkata via Bangkok and eventually reached Cambodia. For years, Dhilla remained outside the reach of Indian authorities. His life in Cambodia also took a personal turn. He married a local woman and had children. It was during his stay in the country that he met Meta Chan, with whom he later began living. The couple had children together, and three of Chan’s children accompanied her when she travelled to India for the marriage ceremony with Dhilla. Haryana gangster Mainpal Dhilla with his family Meanwhile, his status as a wanted criminal continued to follow him. The agency subsequently contacted the NCB-Bangkok, which found that he had travelled from Thailand to Cambodia. The CBI then alerted the NCB-Phnom Penh that the wanted criminal was travelling on fraudulent travel documents. Cambodian authorities later decided to hand him over to India. A team of the Haryana Special Task Force travelled to Cambodia to bring him back. The man who had once used a false identity to escape India was now back in custody, but his life in Cambodia had left him with a family and a relationship that he wanted to formalise. Dhilla and Chan had been living together in Cambodia and had children. After his extradition to India, the couple’s marriage was eventually arranged under highly unusual circumstances. Chan and three of her children accompanied her for the ceremony. The ceremony lasted only a fraction of the time Dhilla had spent away from India. His journey had begun with a life sentence and a parole release, followed by an escape, a fake identity, years in Cambodia and an international extradition process. It eventually brought him back to Haryana, where he was given a brief window of freedom to marry the woman he had met during his years on the run. Once the ceremony was over, the brief reprieve ended. Download the TOI App.
Dhilla, 50, was recently granted 12-hour custody parole to marry his Cambodian partner, Meta Chan. The unusual wedding was the latest chapter in the life of a man who spent years evading Indian law enforcement after walking away from parole in 2018. A resident of Badli village in Jhajjar district, Dhilla, also known as Mainpal Badli, had 22 cases against him, including murder, when he was arrested after being extradited from Cambodia last year, according to news agency PTI. He was already serving a life sentence in Hisar jail after being convicted in three cases registered in 2007 and 2010. In 2018, he was granted six weeks’ parole from Hisar Central Jail. Dhilla was released on July 17, 2018.
Instead of returning to prison, he went absconding. On Thursday, he was taken from prison under tight security to a farmhouse in Jhajjar, where the wedding ceremony was performed before he was escorted back to jail.