Mira Bhayandar: Nearly four years after he fled after sexually assaulting a nineteen-year-old girl in Nallasopara, the accused (now aged 47 years) was arrested from Uttarakhand by the crime branch unit (Zone III) attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police on Thursday.
Notably, the girl considered the accused- Anil Omprakash Bidlaan as a father figure as he was known to her mother and frequently visited their home. The incident dates back to 16, September, 2021 when Bidlaan who worked as an estate agent, found the girl alone in the house and lured her to a vacant apartment where he brutally raped her. He threatened the girl to kill her if she revealed about the incident to her mother before fleeing the spot leaving her in a profusely bleeding state.
An offence under sections 376 (rape) and 506(criminal intimidation) of the IPC was registered at the Nallasopara police station against the accused who went absconding after committing the crime. Attempts by the Nallasopara police to arrest remained futile.
While investigating this cold case (an unsolved criminal case that has been stopped being actively pursued due to lack of leads), the crime branch unit led by Pramod Badhaakh learnt that the accused was a chronic alcoholic who before committing the crime had spent some years at a rehabilitation centre.
Later, he came to Nallasopara where he started working as an estate agent. “We visited the rehabilitation centre and gathered vital clues about the accused. However, he kept changing his locations. After receiving a tip-off about the possibility of him being in Uttarakhand, our teams immediately reached there and managed to nab Bidlaan from Haridwar where he was found working as a private security guard.” said Badhaakh.
The accused originally belongs to Delhi whose wife died a few years ago and has two grown-up children who are married. While the accused has been remanded to police custody, further investigations were underway.
