Rajasthan hotelier convicted of rape held in Gujarat

The Rajasthan police have arrested hotelier Parbat Singh, convicted of raping a British woman journalist in Udaipur in December 2007, from Vapi town in Gujarat. He was absconding since the Supreme Court cancelled the bail granted to him in the case by the Rajasthan High Court in July last year.

Udaipur Superintendent of Police S. K. Narzari said Parbat Singh, arrested from a hotel in Vapi on October 20-21 night, was brought to the city and produced in a court which remanded him to judicial custody.

Parbat Singh was sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast track court in Udaipur on April 30, 2008, while convicting him of raping the British woman in his guest house in Chandpole area of the city, where she was staying on the night of December 23, 2007.

Mr. Narzari said the city police had completed investigation and filed the charge-sheet against Parbat Singh within three days. The Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track) convicted and punished him in four months in one of the fastest trials in the State.

Parbat Singh filed an appeal against the judgment in the Rajasthan High Court, which suspended his sentence and ordered his release on bail. He was set free from Udaipur Central Jail on July 31, 2008.

Aggrieved by the High Court order, the victim moved a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, which set aside the High Court order on January 16 this year, cancelled Parbat Singh’s bail and directed the State Government to immediately arrest him.

Police failure to track down and capture Parbat Singh for several months led to a public outcry in the State and attracted displeasure of the Supreme Court. The apex court asked the State police to declare him a proclaimed offender on May 15 and pulled up the State Government during the hearing on July 20 for its failure to trace him.

The then State Principal Home Secretary, S. N. Thanvi, appeared in person in the Supreme Court on July 27 to inform the Bench of the steps taken to hunt down the convict and arrest him. A special team led by an Additional S.P. was appointed to handle the case and apprehend Parbat Singh.

Mr. Narzari said the team went as far as Karnataka, Goa and Nepal in search of Parbat Singh and finally captured him in Vapi after getting a clue to his presence in the town situated on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border.