NEW DELHI: A convicted Haryana gangster who jumped parole in 2018 and fled India was brought under heavy police guard to a wedding venue in Jhajjar on Thursday (Sept 24) after being granted 12 hours of custody parole to marry his Cambodian partner.
Mainpal Dhilla, also known as Mainpal Badli, who is serving life sentences in three murder cases, was allowed out of custody from 8am to 8pm for his marriage to Cambodian national Meta Chan at Dulina Farm on the Jhajjar-Gurugram road, according to police and media reports.
The wedding came about a year after Dhilla was brought back to India from Cambodia following years on the run.
Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shubham Singh said elaborate security arrangements had been made for the ceremony.
Two crime units Jhajjar CIA and CP Special Staff along with 15 heavily armed personnel were assigned to escort and protect Dhilla during his movement, Singh told the Hindustan Times.
The Sadar Jhajjar police station in-charge and another 25 personnel, including armed and women police staff, were deployed at the venue.
Dhilla faces around 22 criminal cases involving offences including murder, attempted murder, robbery, dacoity, criminal conspiracy and illegal weapons, according to police records cited in media reports.
He is serving life sentences in three murder cases.
His return to temporary custody parole carries particular significance because Dhilla had failed to return from an earlier parole.
He was granted six weeks’ parole from Hisar Central Jail in July 2018 but did not surrender when it expired.
Investigators later found that he had obtained an Indian passport using forged documents under the name “Sonu Kumar” and fled the country in 2019, travelling through Bangkok before eventually settling in Cambodia’s Siem Reap.
Police said Dhilla ran a nightclub in Cambodia and lived there with his Cambodian partner.
Earlier police accounts said the couple had three children, though reports surrounding Thursday’s wedding said Chan had arrived in India with four children.
Dhilla remained on Haryana Police’s wanted list during his years abroad. An Interpol Red Notice was issued against him in November 2024, and Cambodian authorities detained him in July 2025.
He was brought back to India on Sept 2, 2025, in an operation coordinated by the Central Bureau of Investigation with Haryana Police and Indian government agencies, and was taken into custody on arrival.
On Thursday, unlike his release eight years earlier, Dhilla remained under police custody throughout the 12-hour period and was required to return to jail by 8pm.
The couple were due to marry according to Hindu rites in the presence of their children and family members, media reports said. - The Statesman/ANN
