Nearly a year after he went absconding after sexually exploiting and blackmailing a woman between June 2022 and July 2023, the 25-year-old culprit finally landed into the custody of the crime branch unit (Zone II) attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police on Saturday.
The accused Atul Jaiprakash Yadav was arrested from Sion East. In her complaint registered at the Naigaon police station in Vasai on July, 14, 2023, the woman stated that the accused under the pretext of meeting her friend took her to SP Hotel where he spiked her juice with some sedatives. The accused not only raped her but also shot obscene videos.
He later blackmailed her by threatening to circulate the video on social media platforms and took her to various hotels where he sexually exploited her on multiple occasions for over a year.
Fed up with the ordeal, the woman approached the Naigaon police station following which an offence under sections 376 (rape), 76 (2)(N) (commits rape repeatedly on the same woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
A police team visited all the hotels frequented by the accused and found out that he stayed in a tenement near the Antop Hill church. The team activated their informer network and based on a tip-off arrested him on Saturday. Further investigations were underway.
