Srinagar, March 11: An alleged rape fugitive chanced upon a Rajouri hospital filled with accident victims, pretended to be one, pocketed crash compensation and escaped in a government chopper lifting the injured to Jammu before being caught.

The Omar Abdullah government was red-faced as long as Mohammad Parvez’s 48-hour cat-and-mouse game with the law-keepers continued before the authorities had the proverbial last laugh with the 26-year-old’s arrest last night.

An inquiry has been ordered into how Parvez, who allegedly raped a woman in the Manjakote area of Rajouri on Thursday, dodged his pursuers and whether any official connived in his escapades.

Parvez had rushed to the Rajouri hospital for treatment of the bruises inflicted on his face by the victim as she tried to resist the assault, according to the police.

Soon, the hospital was flooded with the victims of a bus accident in the district that had left 15 persons dead and over two dozen injured. The bus had rolled down a gorge.

The state administration, realising that the Rajouri hospital was not equipped to tackle the most critically injured, later pressed a chopper into service to airlift some of them to a hospital in Jammu town, around 150km away.

“He mingled with the injured and pretended to be one of them. It was then when he was shifted to Jammu hospital in a chopper for treatment,” Rajouri officer Mehmood Ahmad Khan said.

Another official said Parvez pretended to have suffered “internal injuries” during the accident and took advantage of the chaos at the hospital.

“He was one of the 10 seriously injured patients airlifted to Jammu. He even got the cash assistance of Rs 5,000 that was given to each of the wounded for treatment,” he added.

The cops on his pursuit did reach the Rajouri hospital but it was too late by then.

“The police had launched a manhunt for him and during the search, they got clues that he had gone to the Rajouri hospital. When they reached there, they discovered that he had been shifted to Jammu. They called officials in Jammu but were told he had fled the hospital there,” another official said.

Rajouri officer Khan said the suspect came back to Rajouri and was arrested last night.

“He came back to Rajouri after spending some time in Jammu. We got a tip-off about his presence in a remote village and arrested him.”