In a bizarre incident, a 31-year-old man accused of raping a minor girl allegedly faked his own death in order to evade trial. The accused submitted a false death certificate before a special court in Mumbai through his family.
According to Indian Express, the accused was re-arrested on Monday and sent to judicial custody. The accused was arrested after a policeman went to accused’s hometown to verify the claim of his death. On April 7, 2015, the accused was arrested for raping a four-year-old girl who was his neighbour. On the day of the incident, she was playing outside the accused’s house when he allegedly brought her inside.
After sometime when the girl did not return home, her mother started looking for her. The girl’s mother allegedly heard her crying inside the accused’s house. She knocked the door and found the girl crying, after taking her back to her house the girl narrated the entire incident to her, after which the accused was arrested on charges of rape under the IPC and under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). But later in August 2015, the accused was granted bail as the court observed that he was young and if kept in custody, he could come in contact with hardened criminals.
The accused kept on attending court during the recording of evidence and the deposition, but he stopped attending hearings from April 2018. The police told the court that the accused claimed he had gone to visit his hometown in Uttar Pradesh as his father had passed away. The accused’s brother claimed in the court on November 27, 2018, that he had died, and submitted a death certificate. Police then went to the accused’s hometown to verify the claim, where police learned that the accused was not dead and he was arrested on Monday and brought to Mumbai.
