District police superintendent B D Vaghela said Hanif was arrested from a hotel at Vapi on Sunday evening. However, Paradise Hotel from where he was reportedly arrested has issued an advertisement in the vernacular newspapers denying that he ever stayed there.

Hanif is facing charges of kidnapping a minor, luring her into marriage and raping her. Both Hanif and Varsha Shah have disputed these charges saying they are in love. Hanif said he was even ready to become a Jain (Varsha's religion) in order to marry her. Vaghela told reporters that the police had also traced the involvement of Hanif in other offences like vehicle thefts, bootlegging and rioting.

Local Crime Branch (LCB) PSI Subhe Singh Yadav said more police remand for Hanif wouldbe sought on Thursday, when his earlier police custody comes to an end. ``As of now, he has been arrested for kidnapping and raping a minor.'' Yadav toldThe Indian Express. A team of LCB sleuths, along with the Vapi police, nabbed Hanif from Hotel Paradise in Vapi on Sunday evening on receiving a tip that he had gone there to contact his lawyer for an anticipatory bail.

Speaking to reporters at the office of the district magistrate in the presence of the DSP and the collectorate, Hanif said that he had not married Varsha, as was widely reported but added quickly that he did have sexual relations with the girl and she was pregnant from the relationship. ``Even if I am jailed for 50 years, I will return and marry Varsha,'' he said stating that no law could stop them from getting married.

Hanif (33) said that he had been on the run since June 21, a day after Varsha came to his house at 2 am, asking him to take her away as she was pregnant. Replying to where he was staying since then, he said that heslept in rail coaches, on bus stands and was in the district all through. He went to Vapi on Saturday, before being nabbed by the district police from there.

Speaking to newspapers later, the district magistrate and collector R M Shah said that although the police had not secured proof about the exact age of Varsha, the very fact that she and Hanif were having relations for the past year and a half proved that the girl was a minor.

"In this case, the two are from different communities, but in any case, it is an offence and must be checked," he stated. DSP Vaghela also added that as of now, he had not been booked under PASA but the police would consider it at a later stage of investigations. "He has been involved in cases of rioting, vehicle thefts and bootlegging before," the DSP stated, adding that he had been arrested by the police for bootlegging in 1997.

Hanif admitted that this was his second serious affair with a girl from another community, stating that the first time he was involved with a girlten years ago.

When quizzed about the diary in which minute details of his meetings with Varsha had been recorded over the past year and a half, Hanif said although he had written the diary himself, every time he wrote in the diary, the girl was present with him. The police are attempting to use the diary as evidence to frame cases of rape against Hanif.