Hit-run driver Puneet Puneet's mate tipped off police before his wedding

EXCLUSIVE: HIT-RUN driver Puneet Puneet was arrested in his wedding clothes after he was betrayed by a friend who tipped off police hours before his nuptuals.

Puneet Puneet at court arrives under police escort.

EXCLUSIVE: HIT-RUN driver Puneet Puneet was arrested in his wedding clothes four hours before he was to walk down the aisle after he was betrayed by a friend who tipped off police.

Police have confirmed that an Indian friend of Puneet's was the secret informant who told them he was staying in an out-of-the-way hotel ahead of his wedding, which was planned for midday on Friday, November 29.

Police who staked out the hotel the night before and ­detained him after he arrived on a bus at 8am confirmed he was wearing his wedding clothes - thought to include an elaborate gold jacket - when he was arrested.

The wedding, which was booked for 100 guests in the manufacturing city of Panipat, was hurriedly cancelled after the arrest.

And it seems the $100,000 reward offered by Victoria Police - which amounts to 5.2 million Indian rupees - was a motivating factor in the friend's decision to betray the fugitive.

Punjab police told the Sunday Herald Sun the male friend was now seeking to be paid.

Puneet, 24, was arrested at the Regency Hotel in Panipat, north of the Indian capital of Delhi, after more than four years on the run.

He had fled Australia on a friend's passport in 2009 after admitting his guilt over a drunken, high-speed car crash in which he killed pedestrian Dean Hofstee, 19, and critically injured Clancy Coker, 20, in Melbourne's City Rd in October 2008.

Panipat is about halfway between Noida, the satellite city south of Delhi where Puneet had been living and working in a call centre, and Rajpura, the northern Punjabi city where his fiancee lived.

The Punjabi policeman who arrested Puneet, Inspector Bikramjit Singh Brar, told the Sunday Herald Sun this week that one of Puneet's close friends had given police the tip-off that led to his arrest.

Inspector Brar also confirmed Puneet had told him after he was arrested that he was due to be married.

"He told us he was planning his wedding, his parents were planning it,'' he said.

Puneet's fiancee, who continues to support him and visited him in custody, was photographed outside the Patiala Central Jail two days after he was arrested, with the traditional "mehndi'' henna designs that Hindu women apply to their hands just before they are married. The henna had faded and was no longer visible by the time Puneet was transferred to prison in Delhi several days later.

Inspector Brar said Australian Federal Police liaison ­officer in India, Richard Moses, had come to his police station at Banur, outside the northern Indian city of Patiala, in early October.

"He gave us the details of Puneet,'' he said.

Inspector Brar said he was assigned to investigate, and he worked for weeks tracking down Puneet's friends.

"He had close friends from years and years before, in Rajpura and staying in Panchkula. We worked on his friends and their phones," he said.

"One of them helped us. We can't name him, he is an informant and his identity has to be kept secret.''

Asked if the man knew beforehand about the Victoria Police reward, Inspector Brar said: "He's aware."

He said Banur police were now sending the man's name and address to Victoria Police in order to assist the man to claim the reward.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal that Puneet's family - the Rawals - booked into the Regency Hotel in Panipat on November 25.

They had booked a wedding reception in a banquet hall at the Hotel Abhinandan, about 100m away on GT Road on the National Highway, which connects Delhi, ultimately, with Kabul in Afghanistan.

Hotel Abhinandan manager Millan Sharma said the banquet hall was booked for the purposes of a wedding for 100 people.

"They came here to book three rooms but we were full, so we transferred them to the Regency Hotel,'' he said.

Mr Sharma said the first the hotel knew of any problems was when no one turned up for the wedding.

"When they didn't turn up, we called them and found that they have cancelled their wedding plans,'' Mr Sharma said.

He said hotel staff later came to know that the "groom was arrested from the Regency Hotel for some case".

The wedding menu was to include the Hotel Abhinandan's lunch buffet, which offers an array of traditional Indian dishes for 300 rupees a head, or about $6.

The two-storey hotel has 24 accommodation rooms and two banquet halls and hosts most of the prestigious weddings in Panipat.

Operations manager at the Regency Hotel, Satiyawan Prakash, confirmed the Hotel Abhinandan's explanation of how Puneet's family came to be staying at a different venue to the planned wedding.

"Puneet's family was recommended by Hotel Abhinandan staff, as they were booked (out) and we had vacancy,'' Mr Prakash said.

"This was just a goodwill gesture as we help each other in business.''

Manager of the Hotel Regency, K. Prasad, said: "We too heard that he was supposed to get married but we had no idea where it was.''

The Sunday Herald Sun has not yet been able to identify Puneet's fiancee, but it is known she comes from Rajpura, near Puneet's home city of Panchkula in the north.

It's believed she and her guests were due to travel to Panipat on the morning of the wedding.

Puneet had been at the Hotel Regency, upstairs in a room rented by his father Naresh Kumar Rawal and his mother Geeta Rani, for less than 15 minutes when police officers pounced.

He did not try to run, but walked down the hotel's staircase and burst into tears.

Puneet, who appeared in court again in Delhi on Thursday, has flagged several paths of resistance to his extradition.

His lawyers are arguing that Australia is unsafe for Indians and that Puneet would be harshly and unfairly punished if he was returned to serve his sentence.

They also seem set to argue that because Australia and India only signed an extradition treaty in 2010, it should not apply to Puneet, who fled Australia in 2009.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General's department said the treaty came into force on July 9, 2010, and that Australia "greatly values the co-operative relationship it has with India on international criminal matters".

He said three Indian nationals had been extradited to Australia since the treaty came into effect; one wanted for sexual offences in Queensland, another wanted for assault in NSW and one wanted for sexual assault in Victoria. No Australian nationals had been extradited to India under the terms of the treaty.

Puneet is remanded in Delhi's norotious Tihar Jail.

His case is next listed on February 6.

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>> LIFE ON THE RUN

October 1, 2008: A drunk and speeding Puneet Puneet hits two Gold Coast university students with his V8 Holden Commodore as they leave the Mantra Hotel on City Rd, Southbank, about 12.50am, killing Dean Hofstee, 19, and seriously injuring Clancy Coker, 20.

February 4, 2009: Puneet pleads guilty to culpable driving causing Mr Hofstee's death and negligent driving causing serious injuries to Mr Coker.

June 12, 2009: Puneet flees Australia travelling under name of Sukhcharanjit Singh.

August 20, 2009: County Court judge issues a warrant for Puneet's arrest.

March 24, 2011: Sukhcharanjit Singh jailed for a minimum of 18 months for helping Puneet flee by providing his passport.

Mid-November: Seven members of Puneet's family, including his father and mother, check into the Regency Hotel in Panipat, ahead of his planned wedding.

November 29, 2013: Puneet travels from his home city of Noida to the hotel in Panipat, and is arrested.

November 30, 2013: The scheduled date for Puneet's now-cancelled wedding ceremony.