It was an online payment of Rs 50 from a UPI ID at a local saloon in Bihar that helped the Mumbai police trace and arrest a 26-year-old man days after he had been accused of rape. The man had fled Mumbai last month after a case was registered against him and was staying at his sister’s house when the police found him. On May 8, a 25-year-old woman approached a South Mumbai police station saying that a man she met through social media had raped her on the pretext of marrying her and had forced her to undergo an abortion, the police said. A case under sections 376 (rape), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), 417 (punishment for cheating) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the man. “Soon after the case was registered, our team went to his house in Mumbai but he had already escaped. His phone was also switched off due to which we could not track his location,” a police officer said. Clueless about the suspect’s location, the police got his call detail records and began identifying his relatives and their locations. The police learnt that the man was from Bihar and his sister was currently staying in Darbhanga. “His mother too stayed in a neighbouring village but we were afraid that he may have escaped to Nepal because they stayed close to the border,” one of the officials who was part of the investigating team said. A police team was subsequently sent to Darbhanga on May 11. The team initially went to his sister’s address, as registered with a telecom. But as they were unsure about the suspect’s presence in the house, they did not go inside. “Going to the suspect’s sister’s house would have given us away. He could have changed his location so we decided to wait for some time,” an officer said. On May 12, while the police team lay in wait outside the woman’s house in Darbhanga, a constable in Mumbai was instructed to go to the bank where the suspect had an account and get an account statement. “Our constable got the statement in the afternoon and the last transaction showed that he had paid Rs 50 at a local saloon in Darbhanga,” said an officer. “As soon as he gave us the UPI ID of the saloon, we got his name and number from the digital payment company and contacted the barber,” the officer added. The police learnt that his shop was 50 metres away from the suspect’s sister’s house. “We met him, showed him his picture and after getting confirmation, we went to the house on the same night and apprehended the accused,” the officer said. The accused was brought to Mumbai, where he allegedly confessed to the crime, the police said, adding that he is now in jail.
