28-year-old held for abducting, impregnating minor in 2019
Man arrested for kidnapping, raping, and impregnating minor in 2019, found after 5 years in Varanasi. Booked under rape, kidnapping laws.
New Delhi
A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a minor, and raping and impregnating her, before abandoning her and the newborn around five years ago, police said on Saturday.
He was booked under sections of rape and kidnapping of the Indian Penal Code, and sexual assault under Section 4 of the Pocso Act.
The woman was 16 years old during the incident, which took place at Shahdara in 2019.
Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said a case was lodged in 2019 and a year later, a city court declared Kumar a proclaimed offender. Teams were sent across UP and Delhi to nab him.
An investigation officer said the accused and the minor met in 2017 or 2018 at Shahjahanpur, when she was visiting her grandfather. The accused, who was a neighbour, met her regularly and convinced her to elope with him in 2019.
“Her parents did not know about the wedding. The accused took the minor and fled Delhi. He didn’t allow her to talk to her parents. He raped her and impregnated her a few months later. A kidnapping case was lodged and the police later recovered the woman near Varanasi with her baby. The accused found out about the investigation against him and fled,” the officer, not wishing to be named, said.
A second investigator, requesting anonymity, said, “We used to analyse the call detail records of Kumar’s mother and brother on a regular basis. Initially, he was not in contact with them but later, we found an unknown number from Varanasi which he used to contact the family. As soon as we got the location of the accused, we deployed an informer and reached Varanasi.”
Police said the accused started working as a gas delivery executive to make a living. He was held from Kabir Chauraha in Varanasi on Friday.
In the past five years, Kumar had been switching between odd jobs and cities to evade police.