NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old man, wanted in an alleged rape and POCSO case and on the run for more than two months, was arrested in Uttarakhand, police said on Friday. The accused, a resident of the Welcome area in northeast Delhi, was apprehended during a raid in Bhagwanpur in Uttarakhand, they said.
According to police, the case came to light on April 4 when a 21-year-old woman approached the Welcome police station alleging that the accused sexually assaulted her in 2023 after threatening her with a pistol and recorded a video of her and later used it to blackmail and repeatedly sexually exploit her. “He also stalked her during her tuition classes and threatened her and her family members with dire consequences,” a senior police officer said.
Based on her complaint, a case was registered of rape, stalking, criminal intimidation and related offences, police said. During the investigation, police verified the victim’s age and found that she was a minor at the time of the alleged incident. “Subsequently, Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was added to the case. The accused had been absconding since the FIR registration. Multiple raids were conducted at his suspected hideouts. Non-bailable warrants had been obtained against the accused and proceedings to declare him a proclaimed offender had also been initiated,” the officer said. Acting on a tip-off, a team traced and apprehended the accused from Bhagwanpur.
Police found that the accused had previous criminal involvement in cases related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and gambling.