Leap of faith gone wrong: How Delhi Police tracked down a man who had eloped with his minor stepdaughter

A abbreviated concern travel to Srinagar, her hometown, successful June 2021, would crook into a astir four-year nightmare for the woman. In November 2024, the Delhi Police arrested her hubby from his hideout successful Dehradun for allegedly kidnapping her elder girl and sexually assaulting her. A period aft his arrest, the elder daughter, present 20, gave commencement to a boy.

“It is simply a shocking case,” says a constabulary serviceman privy to the investigation. “This antheral joined a divorced pistillate (in 2020). Then (in 2021), helium kidnapped his recently wedded wife’s 17-year-old girl from her earlier marriage, claiming that helium had joined her. He present has a kid with her”.

How did this antheral prosecute the 40-year-old woman? The Delhi Police officers told The Indian Express that “both of them enactment successful the lawsuit absorption industry”.

“She said they fell for each different erstwhile they archetypal met successful Delhi successful December 2019. They exchanged numbers, which led to telephone calls. The calls past led to meetings each clip she was successful Delhi for work. Seemingly determined to instrumentality their narration to the adjacent level, helium travelled to Srinagar to conscionable her aged parents and declared that helium was successful emotion with her,” a constabulary serviceman says.

In the 2nd week of June 2021, the pistillate had to spell to Srinagar for a day. “She says she asked him to travel her, but helium insisted connected staying backmost to instrumentality attraction of the children. When the pistillate returned to Delhi the adjacent day, she felt her elder girl looked highly troubled. Despite her concern, the girl didn’t utter a word,” the constabulary serviceman says.

It didn’t instrumentality agelong for the pistillate to observe wherefore her elder girl looked troubled. She told the constabulary that the accused had made intersexual advances towards the miss portion she was successful Srinagar. “She managed to flight his advances and locked herself successful a room. Extremely distressed, she called her begetter (the archetypal husband) from the room. I learnt astir the incidental from my archetypal husband,” the pistillate told the police.

As soon arsenic she learnt astir the incident, the pistillate told the constabulary that she decided to sever each ties with the accused. “His household begged maine to not permission him. He called up my ex-husband and apologised to him arsenic well,” the pistillate told the police.

While she was moving retired the modalities of her separation with the accused, the pistillate sent her daughters to enactment astatine a relative’s location successful Bawana. The pistillate did not cognize then, but “something overmuch worse” was successful store for her tiny household — her elder girl went “missing” from the relative’s Bawana location a fewer days later.

The Delhi Police accidental the pistillate lodged a lawsuit of kidnapping connected June 26, 2021. “She did not cognize what had happened to her daughter. We suspected that the accused had someway lured her daughter, but the pistillate refused to judge america astatine first. She could not ideate that the antheral she had fallen successful emotion with and joined had kidnapped her elder daughter. Besides, she had already separated from him due to the fact that helium had molested her girl successful her absence,” the constabulary serviceman says.

So the Delhi Police started searching for the man, who was missing from his location successful the nationalist superior too. “We checked his telephone information records, and scanned CCTV cameras astatine autobus stands, railway stations and respective different places, but determination was nary hint of the accused oregon the woman’s daughter. On October 28, 2022, implicit a twelvemonth aft the miss went missing, the accused was declared a proclaimed offender,” the constabulary serviceman says.

Despite respective raids and different efforts, the accused and the woman’s girl seemed to person vanished disconnected the look of the earth, says a constabulary officer. Two years later, successful November 2024, idiosyncratic tipped disconnected the Delhi Police saying they saw the accused successful Dehradun, Uttarakhand, with the woman’s daughter.

Though a Delhi Police team, led by Assistant Commissioner Pawan Kumar and comprising inspector Vivekanand and SI Saifi, was rushed to Dehradun, they failed to find the accused successful the Uttarakhand capital. “There was nary grounds of anyone by that sanction (the accused’s name) surviving successful Dehradun,” the constabulary serviceman recalls, adding that they realised the accused was astir apt surviving successful the elevation municipality nether a caller identity.

The mentation would beryllium to beryllium existent later, the constabulary discovered. “We recovered retired aboriginal that the accused had stolen someone’s individuality and had utilized that ID to rent a level successful Dehradun,” the constabulary serviceman says.

“He was highly assured that helium had covered his tracks well. So overmuch truthful that helium was adjacent readying to get his tenant verification done from the section constabulary station. However, helium made one, tiny mistake,” the constabulary serviceman says.

While scanning the slope records of the parent of the accused, the constabulary zeroed successful connected a wealth transportation made by idiosyncratic chartless via a UPI app. It was the interruption the constabulary had been waiting for.

“We traced the details of the idiosyncratic who had made that transportation and a constabulary squad visited his house. We would larn aboriginal that the accused had a stolen identity. Since the chartless antheral looked thing similar the accused, helium was questioned by the team. He told them that helium had ne'er seen the accused. However, helium is inactive not successful the wide since the mobile SIM paper utilized by the accused and his Dehradun rental statement are each successful the sanction of the alleged unfortunate of individuality theft,” the constabulary serviceman says.

To corroborate their suspicion, the constabulary went backmost to the time the woman’s elder girl went missing from Bawana. “We suspected the accused had been utilizing his fake individuality close from the start. So we scanned the summons records of buses that near Bawana the time the woman’s girl had gone missing. That’s however we recovered a autobus summons nether the man’s assumed name,” the constabulary serviceman says.

Nearly 4 years aft the Delhi Police started searching for the missing daughter, their hunt led them to a rented level successful Dehradun. “The woman’s daughter, present implicit 20 years old, was 8 months large with the man’s baby,” the constabulary serviceman says.

Since the woman’s girl was a insignificant astatine the clip of her alleged kidnapping, the constabulary added sections of rape and POCSO to the kidnapping complaint. A period aft the man’s arrest, she gave commencement to their son.

“Though she is alert that the accused is inactive joined to her mother, she insists helium is her hubby and that she wants to unrecorded with him. She refuses to acquisition counselling. In fact, she is staying with his household successful a colony successful southbound Delhi and not with her mother,” the constabulary serviceman says.

In a caller stroke to the mother, she has discovered that the accused ne'er dissolved his archetypal matrimony erstwhile helium joined her. On December 6, 2024, the pistillate lodged a lawsuit of rape and cheating with constabulary successful Srinagar. The accused was subsequently taken into custody by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and is present lodged successful a jailhouse successful Kashmir.

“We are scrutinising each the documents the accused had utilized to conceal his individuality portion connected the run. The relation of his parents is besides nether scanner. Our squad is presently successful Kashmir to analyse the matter,” says Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sanjay Sain.