On the run for over two years, a 50-year-old teacher who had eloped with his 18-year-old female student was nabbed by a team of Delhi police from Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The teacher Dhaval Trivedi, already convicted for raping two minors who were also his students, will be brought to Ahmedabad by CBI, which was chasing him following a Gujarat High Court order on a petition moved by the girls' parents.
CBI officials said that a team of Delhi police arrested Trivedi from Himachal Pradesh based on information received through technical surveillance. He was disguised as "Satnam Singh alias Mukhtiyar Singh" sporting beards and moustache. Officials said that Trivedi had run away with his 18-year-old student from Chotila, Rajkot district where he had started a coaching centre after getting out of jail on two paroles and a furlough within a span of less than two months.
Officials said that after eloping, Trivedi and the girl started living in Gurudwaras in different cities. They lived at 25 places including Jammu, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Patna, Haridwar, Kathmandu in Nepal among other cities. Officials said that Trivedi lived in several Gurudwaras with fake names and at many places took up teaching work. He taught English at Arora International School, Patna, Maulana Azad Public School at Narkatiyaganj, Champaran as its principal.
They went to Jamshedpur where they lived at Refugee Colony Gurudwara as "Father-Daughter" but left after the management started suspecting. They also went to Odisha and then Haryana from where he tried to leave for Canada as a preacher of Sikh religion but failed due to lack of documents. He took the girl to Haridwar where they separated following a tiff. About two weeks ago, he went to Ludhiana and finally was apprehended in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. Meanwhile, the girl returned home in June with her 11-month-old child.
After she left home in 2018, the girl's parents had registered an FIR with local police but even after a year, they couldn't trace the duo. The matter reached the High Court which asked the CBI to find the girl and the teacher. CBI issued an advisory to all states, education departments and also approached Nepal and Bhutan police for information through Interpol. Look Out Circulars, Blue Corner Notice were issued against Trivedi.
CBI also declared a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh for information on Trivedi. The notice issued by police inspector Ketan Mehta, who is investigating the case, mentioned Trivedi's background as a "history-sheeter" who committed similar offences in the past and "generally works as an English teacher" in remote areas. Gujarat ATS also joined in to assist the CBI.
In a similar incident, Trivedi had been booked for enticing, abducting and eloping with two minor girls in 2012 and was arrested from Punjab in 2014. These girls were also his students at a reputed school in Rajkot. He was awarded life imprisonment by Rajkot sessions court in 2018.
Sources said that inside Sabarmati Central Jail he created rapport with jail staff by helping them reading and replying "English correspondence". He was two paroles and a furlough during which he started a coaching centre at Chotila and within two weeks, he fled with the girl.
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