A 38-year-old man, arrested on Sunday for allegedly sexually assaulting several school girls, has been sent to judicial custody till January 29 by a Delhi court.
According to the police, the serial rapist had allegedly abused over 500 minors.
The accused Sunil Rastogi, who wore the same set of clothes -- a ‘red jacket’ (which is considered lucky) -- used to come from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi by train and look for lone minor girls, kidnap and take them to under-construction buildings or isolated locations, rape them and then flee the city. A tailor by profession, Rastogi was produced before a duty magistrate who sent him to judicial custody.
According to a senior police officer, cops from several police stations, where separate cases have been registered against the accused, would approach court to seek his custody.
Police said the accused is a father of five children, including three girls who are being counselled to know whether he had also targeted them.
On January 10, two cases of kidnapping were lodged in New Ashok Nagar police station in east Delhi where complainants alleged a man misled their daughters, aged 10 and 9.
Earlier, on December 13, 2016, a case under sections 376 (Punishment for rape) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act was registered on the statement of a minor girl.
Police said since all the three cases had a similar pattern, it was suspected that the same person was involved in all of them and investigations were taken up. CCTV footages from cameras installed near the places of incidents were obtained and some images of the accused were developed.
During interrogation, Rastogi confessed he committed similar alleged offences in New Ashok Nagar, Delhi, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), police claimed.
It has been revealed from interrogation that many cases including under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and of theft and molestation were registered against the accused at various police stations in Rudrapur, Delhi and Ghaziabad.
On January 10, two cases of kidnapping were lodged in New Ashok Nagar police station in east Delhi where complainants alleged a man misled their daughters, aged 10 and 9.
It was 'fun' for Rastogi, 'first preyed' in 2001
During interrogation, after he was arrested on January 14, Rastogi said he used to "derive fun" out of sexually assaulting girls aged between 7-11 years, police said.
He used to target minor girls as he thought they could be cajoled and convinced easily and never targeted elder girls since they would fight him off or raise an alarm, they added.
The accused had allegedly "first preyed" on a minor girl in 2001 and thereafter he targeted many girls in Uttarakhand's Rudrapur (where he currently stays), New Ashok Nagar (New Delhi) and Ghaziabad, police said.
They said the accused has has lost count of the number of girls he has assaulted, police said.
Rastogi said he would tell the young girls that their father had sent some clothes or articles for them and if they didn't get convinced, he would pretend to make a phone call to their father, police said.
Sometimes, he also told girls their father had sent him to get them "gold earrings", they added.
An investigating officer said Rastogi used to prey on girls in New Ashok Nagar since he had stayed there and was aware of the "dark and dingy spots", and even the escape routes, where he could assault them, police said.
He wasn't caught till now because he used to come in the morning and leave by the evening.
Many people didn't lodge a complaint for fear of social stigma but after he was caught, several of them came to the police station accusing him of trying to assault their daughters, police said.
Last year, he was arrested in Rudrapur on similar charges and he was out on bail, police said. They said in 2006 also he was sent to Tihar jail in connection with an eve-teasing case.
Image for representation only.
