28-year-old arrested for kidnapping and impregnating a minor in 2019 | Latest News Delhi

New Delhi

A 28-year-old man was arrested for kidnapping, raping and impregnating a minor about five years ago and then abandoning her with the newborn, police said on Saturday.

He was charged with rape and kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code and sexual assault under Section 4 of the Pocso Act.

The woman was 16 years old at the time of the incident, which occurred in Shahdara in 2019.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said a case was filed in 2019 and a year later, a city court declared Kumar a suspected offender. Teams were dispatched across Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to nab him.

An investigating officer said the accused and the minor met in Shahjahanpur in 2017 or 2018 when she was visiting her grandfather. The accused, a neighbour, met her regularly and persuaded her to elope with him in 2019.

“Her parents did not know about the wedding. The accused took the minor and fled Delhi. He did not allow her to speak to her parents. He raped her and impregnated her a few months later. A kidnapping case was filed and the police later found the woman with her baby near Varanasi. The accused came to know about the investigation against him and fled,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.

A second investigator, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We regularly analysed the call records of Kumar’s mother and brother. Initially, he had no contact with them, but later we found an unknown number from Varanasi through which he contacted the family. As soon as we knew the whereabouts of the accused, we deployed an informant and reached Varanasi.”

According to police, the accused started working as a gas supplier to earn a living. He was arrested from Kabir Chauraha in Varanasi on Friday.

For the past five years, Kumar has moved between odd jobs and cities to evade the police.