PANAJI
A joint team of Crime Branch and Mapusa Police succeeded in nabbing the undertrial rape accused Ramchandra Yelappa, who had escaped from Colvale jail last year, from Bengaluru.
Yelappa was lodged in Colvale jail after he was accused and arrested for raping a foreign national at Palolem in Canacona in 2018.
Police informed that this was Ramchandra Yelappa’s second escape from custody. He had first escaped in June 2019 from police custody while being taken to Margao Court after which he was apprehended from Bengaluru. This time, Goa Police tracked him after carrying out surveillance operations across three states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the last 15 days. The intensive efforts paid off between April 9 and 10 and he was apprehended from Hoskote in Karnataka. Mapusa Police placed him under arrest.
During his interrogation, Yelappa revealed that he had escaped from Colvale Jail after carefully planning his escape and had climbed walls and slithered through the drainage ducts. He chose a day with heavy rains to camouflage his escape and even stole clothes hanging to dry to avoid detection. Since then, he travelled across Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. During this time, he took up odd jobs including driving and working with his old associates, sometimes committing thefts and burglaries. He was careful to not remain in the same places for long and remained on the run making it difficult for the police to track him down.
Director General of Goa Police Mukesh Kumar Meena has appreciated the efforts of the joint team and has declared that the officers and staff will be suitably rewarded.
The entire operation was conducted under the supervision of Superintendent of Police (Crime) Shobhit Saksena and Superintendent of Police (North) Utkrisht Prasoon. The police team was led by Police Inspectors Rahul Parab, Anant Gaonkar, Tushar Lotlikar and included PSI Sunil, Kiran Naik, ASI Vijay among others.
