RAIPUR: On the run for about 25 years, a rape accused charged for selling off two victims in Agra was rounded up and arrested in Kanker when he was visiting his mother.
Police had earlier arrested his aide, but the main accused continued changing his locations and successfully managed to evade cops for more than two decades.
Kanker police are running a campaign to nab down those on the run for a long time and against whom a standing warrant of arrest was issued, Kanker SP Shalabh Sinha said.
“49-year-old Balram Vyapari committed the crime in 1996 when it was Madhya Pradesh, and the actual copy of the FIR was being sought out. Accused of rape and trafficking of two girls with the help of his friend, Vyapari escaped every time from police’s clutches during his previous visits to the village,” Kanker SP Shalabh Sinha told TOI.
While the court already ordered a standing warrant of arrest against Vyapari for the past several years, the accused continued changing his locations.
A resident of the Bande region in Kanker, Vyapari and his friend lured two girls from the area into a relationship.
On the pretext of marriage, they took the girls to Agra and raped them for a few days before selling them off into a marriage.
The duo returned to Bande, and when one of the girls somehow managed to escape from the clutches of her buyers and came back to the village, she reported the matter to the police. Following an FIR, the other girl was rescued by police, and the accused duo was arrested.
Vyapari served imprisonment for a year and was released on bail but has never appeared in court after his release for any hearing; the court issued a standing warrant against him. He had absconded by then to other states.
The SP said that Vyapari was changing locations from Maharashtra to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and would secretly visit his mother in the village. The villagers had tipped off police about his short visits, but he would escape every time. He was working as a labourer during this tenure.
As part of the campaign, police alerted locals to inform them upon spotting him immediately. This time, he was successfully caught while resting inside his home on Monday night.
Vyapari was arrested under sections 363, 366, 372, 376 and 34 of the IPC and after being produced in court was sent for judicial remand.
