Rape accused tries to kill himself to evade arrest after absconding for five days

A 22-year-old man, accused of raping a five-year-old girl, tried to kill himself to evade arrest after the police caught up with him following an extensive five-day search operation in Madhya Pradesh’s Harda, police said on Sunday (September 28, 2024).

Harda Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhinav Chouksey told The Hindu that 200 police personnel, more than 500 local residents, and a drone with night vision technology were deployed as part of the manhunt that began on September 23 and covered an area of about 250 square kilometres across three districts — Harda, Khandwa, and Betul. The accused was nabbed in the Mohanpura area of Betul on Sunday morning.

The five-year old survivor was found on September 23 near a river in Sirali police station area. A case was filed the same day after a medical examination confirmed that she had been raped. The accused was identified as Sunil Korku, a resident of Khandwa district’s Khalwa area, and a search operation was launched with a reward of ₹10,000 offered for information on his whereabouts.

Challenging manhunt

The accused had thrown away his phone and been constantly moving, mostly on foot, through forests and fields, for the past three days, Mr. Chouksey said. A forest spreading across 250 sq. km. covers parts of all three districts, prompting the police to deploy a drone with night imaging technology to nab the accused. Three cops were also deployed in each of the 33 villages inside the forest, which has extremely bad roads and no access to a mobile network. The police had reached out to the State government’s IT department for technological assistance and drones.

“He first went to Khandwa then came back to Harda and fled to Betul but was nabbed near the [district] border,” Mr. Chouksey said. “We located him on Sunday morning when he was hiding in a 25-acre maize field. When we caught hold of him, he said that he had drunk some medicine from a bottle he found in a field out of fear of getting arrested. Upon checking, we found out that the bottle contained a pesticide.” The SP said that Mr. Korku has been admitted to a hospital in Harda and was referred to Bhopal for treatment.

The SP said that the accused had been in jail for three years in a rape case in his home town and was released about a year ago.