Rape accused tutor who jumped bail 24 years ago in Kerala tracked down to Chennai, arrested

In 2001, he jumped the bail and remained absconding since then.

“This has been one of the long pending cases. However, we were determined to track him down. We had intensified the search for the last one year. He might have changed religion to remain elusive. He had not taken a mobile connection nor a bank account,’’ said a police officer.

Following his involvement in the rape case, Muthukumar was asked to vacate his rented residence, where he lived with his mother. After jumping bail, Muthukumar moved to the Kerala-TamilNadu border at Nagercoil, where he lived for some time. Later he shifted to Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu.

The inspector said they later tracked down his mother and brother at Tenkasi.

“When we inspected mobile phone call details of the family, we understood that calls from certain numbers had stopped after police reached them. Frequent crediting of money to their accounts from certain accounts have also suddenly ceased,’’ said the officer.

With the help of the cyber cell, the investigating team noticed that the same mobile device was found operating with a different SIM. This was possible after tracking the gadget with its IMEI number. Subsequently, the police found that the mobile phone was used by a woman in Chennai, who happened to be the wife of the accused.

Police said that the court will be informed about the arrest of the accused.