Kolkata, Sep 20 : The West Bengal Police on Saturday arrested a person, accused of sexually abusing a minor, from middle of the sea after disguising themselves as fishermen.

The accused has been absconding for a year and had escaped previous attempts by the police to catch him. The police had chased him in 20 states before finally catching him from Bay of Bengal, where he was hiding in a fishing boat.

According to the police, he was arrested in a raid in the middle of the sea between Kakdwip-Namkhana in South 24 Parganas district.

Ranaghat police district superintendent Aashish Kumar Maurya said: "This accused had been absconding for the last one year. The accused may be involved in women and child trafficking. Finally, our team work was successful. Everyone involved in this operation showed their skills. Arresting the accused in the middle of the sea is one of the successes."

The arrest was made based on a missing complaint of a minor girl in October 2024 at Haringhata police station of Ranaghat police district in Nadia district. Searches were conducted at multiple places in search of the minor girl.

The name of a person associated with a child and women trafficking gang came up.

In July this year, the missing minor girl was rescued from Kalyani in Nadia district. After the girl's medical examination, the police came to know that she was pregnant.

Following this, the police started an investigation by linking the POCSO Act with the missing person case which was then converted into a kidnapping case.

The police said, the search for the accused was going on under the supervision of an officer of the rank of DSP. The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the police and the Special Investigation Team were keeping an eye on the accused. Tracking the tower location on his mobile showed that he was changing his location repeatedly.

The accused had been roaming between Namkhana and Kakdwip areas of South 24 Parganas for the past one month. It was learnt that he was hiding in a fishing boat in the middle of the sea.

In the sea operation, two sub-inspectors and two constables of Ranaghat police district disguised themselves as fishermen and approached the boat which was more than 10 km deep in the sea. Finally, the accused was arrested from that fishing boat and brought to the land.

/IANS