Man who raped German teen held in Delhi after 12 yrs

New Delhi: A man who had allegedly raped a teenager in Germany 12 years ago has been arrested in New Delhi, police said on Monday.

Jaswant Singh, 36, was arrested Sunday night from his house in Adarsh Nagar area in northwest Delhi.

"The accused went to Germany in 1992 and was staying there illegally. In 1997, he along with two of his friends Karan Singh, an Indian, and Mohammad Shahzad, a Pakistani, assaulted and raped a 17-year-old German girl at Darmstadt in Germany," a senior police officer said.

According to the officer, the girl was walking back home August 1, 1997, after missing her train when the three spotted her. Jaswant Singh caught up with her and dragged her inside a park, where he raped her. The other two also raped the girl before letting her go.

The involvement of the three accused came to light when owner of Le Petit restaurant, where Jaswant Singh was working as a chef, overheard him and Karan Singh talking about the incident and informed the police.

While the other two were arrested, Jaswant Singh somehow escaped, and went to Holland from where he returned to India.

Karan Singh and Shahzad were put on trial in Germany and sentenced respectively to 10 and eight years' imprisonment.

Since Jaswant Singh was absconding, the German embassy here forwarded copies of the records of the case to the external affairs ministry in 2008, asking criminal proceedings be initiated against him, the officer said.

The matter was then handed over to Delhi Police's crime branch.

"The German authorities did not have much information about him. We just had his name and place of birth, which is Miani in Punjab's Hoshiarpur area. Information regarding persons with similar names and description who had arrived from Germany over the past few years was gathered. Sources were deployed in various locations in Punjab and people engaged in facilitating immigration were also tapped," the police officer said.

"After months of investigations, Jaswant Singh was arrested from his house at Adarsh Nagar area. He will be put on trial at New Delhi as Germany has not sought his extradition," he said.

Jaswant Singh was at present running a transport business from an office in the national capital's Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar area, the officer said.