MUMBAI, Nov. 11 -- A 23-year-old man who was arrested on Sunday for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Nalasopara fled from police custody on Monday afternoon when he was brought to the Vasai court. After a 30-minute search, the police found him hiding inside a water drum in a village close to the court. The accused, Danish Khan, was arrested after the minor victim's parents, who hail from Uttar Pradesh and reside in the Santosh Bhuvan area, filed a complaint with the police on Friday. According to the statement by the girl, the accused took her to a deserted place and raped her. The Tulinj police initially registered a case against an unknown person. As the victim's health deteriorated after the incident and the case was sensitive, a team from the Nalasopara police crime branch began probing the case, an officer said. Within 48 hours, the team, under the guidance of Senior Police Inspector Aviraj Kurade, went through the CCTV footage and identified the accused as Khan alias Jamir. "He is a habitual criminal, with previous cases of vehicle theft," said Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Madan Ballal. The Crime Branch arrested the accused and handed him over to the Pelhar police for further investigation. At 3pm on Monday, before he could be produced in court, Khan, under the pretext of using the toilet, fled. When he failed to return after some time, officers searched for him in the court premises before checking in nearby villages. Village residents also assisted the police in finding the accused, the officer said. Passersby informed the police that they saw him enter a wadi in the Vasai Panchayat Samiti. Officers then located him hiding in a water drum inside a deserted house. They then took him back to the court and produced him before the magistrate....