Shimla, Jan 8 (PTI) : Newly elected Congress MLA from Himachal Pradesh’s Doon area Ram Kumar Chaudhary, who was among five people wanted for murder of a woman in Haryana, surrendered in a local Panchkula court on Tuesday.

He has been taken into police custody. Chaudhary, who was absconding for for the past few weeks, might be produced in court on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, the Haryana police had announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh to anyone for providing information leading to his arrest.

“The MLA surrendered before CJM (Chief Judicial Magistrate’s) Court in Panchkula today. We have taken him into custody and he will be produced before a Panchkula court later on,” Additional Director General of Haryana Police K K Sharma said.

Chaudhury, a first time MLA, is one of the suspects in murder of a 24-year old woman, who was found dead in Panchkula following which a case has been registered against him by police on November 22 last.

On Monday, the Haryana Police also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 each for the three other accused in the case Paramjeet alias Pamma of village Haripur Sandoli, Baddi, HP, Dharampal alias Maddu of Haripur Sandoli, Baddi and Gurmeet Singh of Housing Board Colony, Baddi, district Solan, (HP).

A special police team headed by Ashok Kumar, DCP Ambala had been camping in Dharamsala, HP, to execute fresh warrants of arrest issued by Panchkula court on January 5 against the accused.

Haryana DGP S N Vashisht had also sent a request to his Himachal Pradesh counterpart with a copy of warrants of arrest for seeking help of HP Police in arresting the fugitives.

The post-mortem report of the girl confirmed that she died of head injuries. It was only after the investigation of the victim’s cell phone details, the role of MLA came under scanner.

Butti Ram, father of Jyoti, had filed a complaint with Haryana police alleging that Chaudhary had close links with his daughter and he could be involved in the murder.

Ram also alleged that Chaudhary had visited his house during the marriage of his younger daughter in September 2009.

Earlier in mid-December Punjab and Haryana High Court had also directed the police to speed up investigations.

The police immediately swung into action and raided several hideouts of the MLA but failed to nab him.

“Police has raided his (Chaudhary’s) house in Sandholi (near Baddi) and other places today but he managed to evade arrest. He and other accused have not been joining investigations for quite some time,” Superintendent of Police S Arul had said last month. Arul said arrest warrants against all the four accused were issued on Friday.

Ram Kumar, general secretary of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, recently won from Doon constituency in Baddi. He is the son of four-time Congress MLA, Lajja Ram.