A 24-year-old man who had been absconding for the past five months after allegedly raping a minor girl was arrested from Kolkata, police here said on Tuesday.

Suraj, a native of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, changed his location frequently to evade arrest and worked as labourer in Delhi and Rajasthan, police said.

All this while, Suraj lived at different places under different names and also stole 12 mobile phones from a hotel in Delhi.

He was arrested from Hapur area of Kolkata on January 19 by a team led by Badshahpur SHO Inspector Satish Kumar.

Immediately after his arrest, police produced him in a local court and secured a four-day remand. He was brought to Gurugram on Tuesday.

According to police, Suraj worked as a security guard in a residential society in Badshahpur area.  

In August 2023, he lured a 13-year-old girl on some pretext and allegedly raped her taking her to a hilly area near Bhondsi. He fled leaving the girl on spot.

While on run, Suraj committed several acts of theft and snatching to get by, police said. He was also found to have been convicted in a snatching case in 2018.

"The accused has a criminal record. Four cases were registered against him of theft, snatching, robbery etc. in Gurugram and one case of theft was registered against him in Delhi.

"Suraj had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in a snatching case registered at Sushant Lok Police Station in 2018," said Priyanshu Dewan, ACP, Badshahpur.

Dewan said that Suraj jumped his parole after spending two and half years in jail and started working as a security guard.