Saini had allegedly raped an employee of a Gurgaon mall, after offering her a lift in his Santro car on January 18. The victim is from Manipur and had come to the city for work.

She was returning to her brother’s house in Mahipalpur after finishing her shift, when Saini, a sales executive with Sriram Capital, offered to drop her.

“Since Saini is a resident of Palam Vihar, he is familiar with the area. So, rather than taking her via NH8, he took her towards old Gurgaon road and then to a farmhouse in Bamroli, Dwarka in Southwest Delhi. There he raped her,” said A K Ojha, DCP (Southwest).

After Saini fled, the woman made her way to the Samlakha Chowk, and informed her relatives. They alerted the police.

During investigation, police recovered a credit and a debit card from the farmhouse. They belonged to Saini.

“We traced Saini’s mobile numbers (after getting details from banks) and got the call details. We also got his photographs and the victim identified him. Police team went to his house, but Saini was not there. He had told his family that he was going out for servicing his car,” Ojha said.

Saini’s family was then taken into confidence and were asked to inform police whenever he called them, police said. His call records confirmed his location in Jaipur and a team was sent there.

“Saini had called from a STD booth near Sheraton Rajputana Hotel in Jaipur. Police inspected all the guesthouses in the area, but could not locate him. His family played a vital role in his arrest. As per our directions, the next time he called, they told him that the Delhi Police was pressurising and torturing them because of his absence,” Ojha said.

Saini then agreed to speak to a senior police officer on phone and told him that he was in Kanpur. The security around his house was stepped up, and he was arrested between 1 and 2 am on Monday.

“He was concerned about his family and also wanted to collect clothes and belongings. He was planning to leave for a hill station to evade arrest, and spend his life as an absconder,” said Ojha.