Rohan Umak
YouTuber Saleem Wastik arrested: The Crime branch unit of Delhi Police on Saturday laid hands on YouTuber Saleem Wastik on charges of a chilling kidnapping and murder case of a 13-year-old boy in the National Capital, which dates back to 1995. Saleem, who identifies himself as a social media personality, and drew eyeballs for his controversial views on Islam, was apprehended from Loni in Ghaziabad following a tip-off.
The crime branch sleuths confirmed his identity through a combination of old police records, fingerprints and photographic evidence. It came to pass that Wastik had been living under a false identity for a long time to evade the law.
YouTuber Saleem Wastik arrested: Details of the 1995 case
The case dates back to January 1995, when a child named Sandeep Bansal (13), the son of a Delhi-based businessman, had been abducted while on his way to school. The next day, his family received a ransom call demanding Rs 30,000, accompanied by threats.
Despite the demand, the child was murdered brutally, and his body was disposed of in a drain in the Mustafabad area, sending a wave of shock through the city and prompting a police probe.
The police suspected Salim Khan (now Saleem Wastik) to be the mastermind behind the crime. At the time of the incident, he used to work at the child’s school as a martial arts instructor. During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime, and the cops later recovered the boy’s body based on Khan’s disclosure.
Saleem, his accomplice were awarded life term; former managed to secure bail, evaded
Saleem and his accomplice were pronounced guilty by the court and had been sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in 2000, Saleem managed to secure interim bail by the Delhi High Court (HC), absconded and failed to return to custody. Although the HC upheld his conviction in 2011, he was still at large.
Saleem faked his own death, assumed multiple identities to evade arrest
Over the years, Saleem managed to give the cops the slip by assuming multiple identities and even faking his own death. He eventually resurfaced as Salim Ahmed and amassed numerous followers online as a YouTube and self-proclaimed activist.
A police probe revealed that he spent years moving across Haryana and UP, before settling in Loni. He ran a women’s clothing shop there while maintaining his online presence. Before his arrest, the authorities verified his identity thoroughly to ascertain whether he was the very criminal they had been searching for years.
Saleem was attacked by 2 men in Feb 2026
Earlier this year, Wastik fell prey to a violent attack. On February 27, two helmeted assailants barged into his office in Ali Garden and stabbed him multiple times, while accusing him of defaming their ‘Prophet.’ He sustained critical injuries in the attack, and was shifted to a local hospital, from where he was referred to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. Later, the police shot dead the two accused who had launched an attack on Wastik.
