Key accused in Guwahati molestation nabbed in UP

Two weeks after the infamous Guwahati molestation case, which baffled people across the nation and triggered an uproar for the arrest of main accused Amar Jyoti Kalitha, the Uttar Pradesh police on Monday claimed to have nabbed the culprit.

The accused Kalitha, who was seen in videos molesting a teenage girl in full public view on the roads of Guwahati recently, was said to be arrested by the Varanasi Police, near Lanka juxtaposed to the historic Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the temple city of Varanasi, 275 km from here.

“The Varanasi police, acting on a tip-off from the Guwahati police, caught one Amar Jyoti Kalita from the Lanka area...he is being interrogated,” said Inspector General (Law and Order) B P Singh.

According to police sources, Kalita had arrived in the city on Sunday from Ahmedabad and had been staying at a hotel in the Lanka area. He was spotted by cops near Malviya chowk and was nabbed. The Guwahati police had informed the state police that Kalita was in Varanasi.

Since July 9, when the shameful act was executed, he was playing hide and seek with the police since he was wanted in the case.  The youngster, who was also carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head had been a headache for the Guwahati  Police who were toiling hard to nab the culprit who had brought shame to the north-eastern city.

However, some reports antagonistic to the “nabbing theory” came to the fore which claimed that the accused “molester” surrendered before the Varanasi Police. According to such reports, he walked to the BHU-based police out-post and surrendered there after identifying himself as Amar Jyoti Kalita.

The police recovered a driving license from his pocket, which reportedly had the name Amar Jyoti Kalita, sources said. Kalita had his head shaved in an apparent bid to dodge the police, which had been hunting him since the incident, that shocked the entire nation.

“The Assam police is on its way to take him to Guwahati'', sources said. Kalita revealed during the interrogation that he had been on the run since the molestation incident and had been to Bhubaneshwar, Mumbai and Ahmedabad before arriving at Varanasi.