The Quezon City police on Monday arrested the city’s most wanted person accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in 2014.
Ian Bayani, now 24, fell in an operation conducted by the Quezon City Police District’s special operations unit (QCPD-DSOU) around 11 a.m. the other day in Barangay Kaligayahan, Novaliches.
QCPD director Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar in a press conference yesterday said Bayani has been wanted for a charge of rape after he reportedly molested his then 16-year-old female neighbor in Barangay Kaligayahan on July 3, 2014.
Eleazar said the suspect around 2 a.m. barged into the victim’s house while her mother was out of the house and her toddler sister was already asleep.
The victim reportedly tried to fight the suspect with a screw driver but the latter managed to disarm her. Bayani dragged her into the other room raped her there.
Eleazar said Bayani hid in Victoria, Laguna, as police were hunting him. The victim and her family eventually left the area but pursued the rape case against the suspect.
On May 12, 2016, Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89 issued a warrant of arrest against Bayani for the crime he committed.
Eleazar said they also got information that Bayani is involved in the illegal drug trade.
“Our deliberation finds him worthy to be a top wanted person since he is also involved in drugs. He is a drug user,” he told reporters.
Bayani is now detained at DSOU jail inside Camp Karingal.
Eleazar assured the victim and her family that they will assist them in convicting the suspect.
(Vanne Elaine P. Terrazola)