Police arrest rape convict who fled before his sentencing 25 years ago

Sahid Hasan disappeared soon after his conviction in an abduction-cum-rape case in 1995 but was arrested in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday.

A man who absconded on the eve of his sentencing in an abduction-cum-rape case in 1995 was arrested here on Saturday, police said. Sahid Hasan disappeared soon after his conviction and before his sentencing by a court in the rape case 25 years ago, police said. He absconded even as his accomplices were sentenced to ten years each in jail in the same case, they said.

Sahid Hasan was arrested by UP police on Saturday. (HT Archive/For Representative Purposes Only)

Asked about a legal provision that a man is presumed dead, if he is not heard of for seven years and if his whereabouts are not known during this period, and its application to the case of Hasan, a senior police official said, “The man had been declared a proclaimed offender by the court.”

The court had even ordered the confiscation of his property after declaring him a proclaimed offender and none of his family members went to the court to have him declared dead, he added. This legal provision does not apply to the arrested accused, he added.