India, Feb. 27 -- A smuggler who had escaped police custody by stealing the station in-charge's car was finally recaptured after an overnight chase on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. The accused, initially caught by villagers and handed over to the police, managed to flee while being taken into custody, leading to a large-scale manhunt involving personnel from three police stations.

On Tuesday night, acting on intelligence from IG Omprakash Paswan's special team, Kalu police set up a checkpoint on the Bharat Mala Road to inspect vehicles. Late at night, they stopped a car coming from Punjab. Two occupants of the car fled leaving the vehicle behind and upon inspection, the police discovered 150 kg of doda post (poppy husk...