NEW DELHI: 5 years after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman and absconded, Delhi Police’s Crime Branch arrested a 34-year-old man who was declared a proclaimed offender in the case.The accused, identified as Sumit Mishra, was wanted in a 2021 sexual assault and criminal intimidation case registered at Ranhola police station in outer Delhi.The case dated back to Mar 7, 2021, when a graduate working at a Delhi govt-run Mohalla Clinic approached Mishra at his shop to seek help in filling out a form for a Civil Defence job. Police said Mishra later contacted the woman on the pretext of providing documents and allegedly sexually assaulted her. The assault reportedly resulted in the woman’s pregnancy.The woman further alleged that the accused recorded nude videos of her and circulated them to her father, brother, and other family members to threaten and intimidate her, leaving her traumatised. Based on her statement, police registered a case under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC at Ranhola police station.Mishra allegedly kept evading summonses and notices. In July 2021, a Delhi court declared him a proclaimed offender.“During his abscondence, Mishra moved across Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, taking up jobs in hatcheries and hotels and frequently changing his identity to avoid detection,” said DCP (crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.In 2022, a raid by Delhi Police’s special staff in Sonipat district of Haryana failed after the accused managed to escape. His associates allegedly attacked the police team during the operation, leading to the registration of a separate case.A breakthrough came earlier this month after the Crime Branch received a tip-off about his whereabouts. Following technical surveillance and human intelligence inputs, a Crime Branch team traced and arrested Mishra from outer Delhi on Saturday. He was produced before a court the same day and arrested in the case.
