NRI held while attempting to flee to Nepal after sexually assaulting minor boy in Kasaragod

Kasaragod: The Melparamba police on Wednesday arrested a 41-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy. The accused, P Abdul Haris, a native of Perumbala in Chemnad who works in the Gulf, was apprehended by a team led by Inspector A Santhosh Kumar while attempting to flee to Nepal, with plans to travel to the Gulf from there.

He faces charges of aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. “As soon as we registered the FIR, he fled the village. To prevent him from escaping abroad, we issued a lookout circular,” said the officer.

Instead of boarding a flight, Haris spent weeks evading arrest in Mumbai before travelling to Sonauli, the town bordering Nepal in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district. There, he made the mistake of approaching Indian customs for a seal on his passport. “That seal makes it easier to get past immigration in Nepal on the other side,” the officer explained.

Customs officials flagged him because of the lookout circular and alerted District Police Chief Vijay Bharat Reddy. “They asked us to pick him up immediately as they could not hold him for long at the border,” said Inspector Santhosh Kumar.

District Police Chief Reddy then arranged flights from Mangaluru to Bengaluru, and Bengaluru to Ayodhya, as there were no direct flights to the nearest airport at Gorakhpur. In Ayodhya, the Assistant Superintendent of Police -- a batchmate of Kasaragod ASP Nandagopan -- arranged a vehicle to cover the 200 km, five-hour drive to Sonauli. "We reached back today and produced him before the court, which remanded him in custody,” said the SHO.