MOHALI: After an eight-year-hunt, Mohali police have arrested Gaurav Kumar, wanted for the double murder of senior journalist KJ Singh and his mother, Gurcharan Kaur. Kumar was arrested in Noida Thursday. Kumar frequently changed cities and jobs to avoid detection and had managed to build a new identity for himself, say police. His employers were stunned to learn that he was an absconder in a high-profile murder case. The “model worker” had been promoted from security guard to manager at a construction firm in the last few years and had married. But police stayed on his trail. The chase turned into a sprint in the last 10 days when tips from elders in his village turned the cold trail hot. Kumar was taken completely by surprise when a team from Mohali police’s “Proclaimed Offenders Staff” surrounded him. He has been brought to Mohali and will be produced in court. The Singhs were found murdered at their home in Mohali during the intervening night of September 22-23, 2017. The killings sent shockwaves across Punjab. SSP Harmandeep Singh Hans said sustained surveillance and intelligence inputs finally led to the accused. “The motive of murder was spontaneous. KJ Singh saw this man sitting near the boundary wall of his house and asked him to go away. The other man got offended and entered his house to kill him and his mother,” Hans said. Police identified Kumar as the suspect and registered a case at Mataur police station on September 23, 2017. But Kumar was nowhere to be found. He was declared a proclaimed offender in 2022. DSP Naveen Pal Singh said that when the case was handed to him, he and his team began “connecting evidence” and went to Kumar’s native village. With the help of sarpanches and panches, police traced him to Noida, where he was caught. Singh said, “He was traced to a construction site in Noida. He joined the firm as a security guard and was elevated to supervisor before being made manager of the project. According to his employer, his conduct was very good... They were shocked to know that he is a double-murder accused.”