Used fake identities, worked across states: Absconding for 5 years, proclaimed offender in sexual assault case arrested by Delhi Police

NEW DELHI: Five years after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman and absconded, Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has arrested a 34-year-old man who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case.The accused was wanted in a 2021 sexual assault and criminal intimidation case registered at Ranhola police station in outer Delhi.The case dates back to Mar 7, 2021, when a graduate working at a Delhi government-run Mohalla Clinic approached him at his shop to seek help in filling out a form for a Civil Defence job. Police said he later contacted the woman on the pretext of providing documents and allegedly sexually assaulted her.

The assault reportedly resulted in the woman’s pregnancy.The woman further alleged that the accused recorded nude videos of her and circulated them to her father, brother and other family members to threaten and intimidate her. Based on her statement, police registered a case under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC at Ranhola police station.The accused allegedly kept evading summons and notices. In July 2021, a Delhi court declared him a proclaimed offender.

“During his abscondence, he moved across Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, taking up jobs in hatcheries and hotels and frequently changing his identity to avoid detection,” said DCP (crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.In 2022, a raid was conducted by Delhi Police in the Sonipat district of Haryana. However, he had managed to abscond again. His associates had allegedly attacked the police team during the operation, leading to the registration of a separate case.A breakthrough came earlier this month after the Crime Branch received a tip-off about his whereabouts. Following technical surveillance and human intelligence inputs, a Crime Branch team traced and arrested him from outer Delhi on Saturday. He was produced before a court on the same day and arrested in the case.