Kolkata, March 22 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Police, along with Kolkata Police, recently arrested a man from Kolkata, 11 years after he allegedly kidnapped a minor girl from UP and settled down here with her. The police said on Sunday that the arrest was made recently, and the UP Police are in the process of taking the man to the said state in transit remand.

According to the police, in 2015, a young man married a minor girl. He allegedly brought her here after abducting her from Khoda Colony in Uttar Pradesh. At that time, the girl’s family filed a complaint against the young man, accusing him of the minor’s sexual assault and abduction. Eleven years have since passed. The girl, who was a minor at the time, has now come of age. The couple also has a child, who is currently attending school. However, throughout these years, the young man failed to respond to police summons.

As a result, after all this time, the Uttar Pradesh Police conducted a raid in Kolkata. Following a search operation in the Tangra area in east Kolkata—conducted with the assistance of the Kolkata Police—officers from the Khoda Police Station in Uttar Pradesh arrested the abductor-turned-husband, who has been identified as Ranjit Singh.

According to the police, the minor girl first met Ranjit through their shared travels to and from Uttar Pradesh. The young man subsequently developed a close relationship with the minor, a resident of the Khoda Colony area in Ghaziabad. Later, the youth fled with the minor to Kolkata, where they got married. Shortly thereafter, the minor’s family lodged a complaint against the young man at the Khoda Police Station.

Ranjit went into hiding within the city with his minor wife. At that time, despite conducting searches, the police were unable to locate him. Later, the young man took up a job, and his wife—who had been a minor at the time of their marriage—attained legal adulthood. The couple also had a child, who was eventually enrolled in school.

Meanwhile, the Khoda Police Station summoned Ranjit; however, he failed to respond. Police officials from the Khoda station then managed to procure Ranjit’s mobile number. Ranjit explicitly informed the Uttar Pradesh police that he was living a happy life with his family and that his wife was now an adult; therefore, he did not wish to get entangled in the old case any longer.

In response, the police explained to him that since allegations of sexual assault of a minor and kidnapping—stemming from that old Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case—still stood against him, and he remained a criminal in the eyes of the law.

A senior officer of Kolkata Police said that the UP Police had advised him to surrender at the Ghaziabad court, accompanied by his wife. He could potentially obtain relief if his wife appeared in court and provided an account of their marital life.

The Uttar Pradesh Police revealed that, on various occasions, Ranjit would tell the police that he was in Maharashtra, while at other times claiming to be working in a different state in southern India. He continued to evade both the police and the courts.

Recently, acting on leads obtained from Ranjit’s mobile phone records, the Khoda Police learned that he was in Kolkata. Consequently, the Ghaziabad court issued an arrest warrant against Ranjit. Acting on the basis of this warrant, the police conducted a raid in Tangra and arrested him. The police have stated that the arrested individual is currently being transported from Kolkata to Uttar Pradesh.

–IAN

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