Man arrested from Bihar after jumping parole for 2007 rape, murder of 6-year-old girl: Delhi Police

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Police have arrested a man from Bihar who jumped parole after being convicted for raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in 2007, officials said on Friday.

The accused, identified as Sanjay alias Sujoy (40), a resident of Patna, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010 for the crime committed in Kapashera in October 2007. His conviction was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2014, but in June 2021 he was released on parole and never returned to prison, officials said.

To deceive police, he changed his name from Sanjay to “Sujoy” and started moving across different locations in Bihar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.

"During this period, he allegedly continued his criminal behaviour. In 2021, he barged into a neighbour’s house in Patna and assaulted women with the intention of outraging their modesty. A case was registered against him at Didarganj police station there," the DCP added.

On October 26, 2007, the body of a 6-year-old girl was found in a vacant plot near Oberoi Farm in Kapashera. Her father identified her as his missing daughter, who had gone out to play with her brother and other children the previous evening.

"Investigations revealed that Sanjay, who lived in the same locality, lured the girl by offering to buy her a samosa. He then raped and murdered her in the plot," an officer said. The post-mortem confirmed multiple injuries on her forehead, head, face and private parts.

Sanjay was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Dwarka on November 25, 2010, and fined Rs 10,000. His appeal was dismissed by the Delhi High Court on February 7, 2014.

However, while on parole granted by the High Court in June 2021, he failed to surrender and went into hiding.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team was sent to Patna, where Sanjay was arrested from his hideout. Police said Sanjay studied up to Class 5 in his native village in Bihar. He came to Delhi in 2003 to work in an export company and later returned to Bihar.

After jumping parole, he married twice and has a child with one wife, while the other is pregnant. He currently has no steady source of income and depends on agricultural fields owned by his family. PTI SSJ HIG