Sunil was arrested after a 10-year-old victim managed to escape from an isolated building where he had kept her.

The arrest of a serial rapist by Delhi Police on Saturday has brought out some shocking facts about how a twisted mind works. Police said during interrogation Sunil Rastogi, the 38-year-old accused, revealed that he belongs to Rampur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and regularly took a train to Delhi or Ghaziabad to target schoolgirls. The man has lost count of the girls he has raped so far.

The Saturday arrest was made possible after a 10-year-old girl managed to flee from the building where she was confined in by the alleged rapist and recounted the trail to police.

The victim had been kept in an isolated building but managed to contact her parents, who then registered an FIR in New Ashok Nagar police station on January 10 to lodge a complaint.

ANOTHER MINOR APPROACHES COPS

Within few hours, another girl, aged nine, also approached the police station with a similar complaint. After getting their medical examinations done, their parents' statements were recorded and two separate cases had been lodged under relevant sections of IPC.

When the 10-year-old victim was counselled, she said she remembered the streets through which the accused walked with her. She also told police that when she was returning home, the culprit came and gave her a cloth saying 'her father was calling her'. Then the duo walked together.

A team was then formed under inspector CR Meena, SHO, New Ashok Nagar police station, and ACP (Kalyanpuri) Rahul Alwal to take up the investigation.

MINOR GUIDES COPS TO THE ROUTE

The counsellor along with the police team accompanied the girl to the routes taken by the accused. While walking on those the streets, the police team spotted a CCTV camera installed at a house.

When the footage was checked, the girl was seen walking with the accused. He was also seen talking to her in a manner that they knew each other very well.

While the investigation in these two cases were on, police came across another case lodged last month where another nine-year-old girl was raped in New Ashok Nagar with the same modus operandi.

Police then took out print of the culprit's photo and checked with locals of the area. The accused's identity was established as Sunil Rastogi. Sunil was found to be a tailor in East Delhi's New Ashok Nagar in 2004. Based on a tip-off then police arrested him on Saturday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East District) Omvir Singh. Further investigation revealed that he is a resident of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. He lives with a handicapped wife, two sons and three daughters. In Rampur, he works as a tailor at SS Tailor Shop.

TARGETED GIRLS AGED BETWEEN 7-10

After detailed interrogation, the accused told police that he used to target girls aged between seven and 10. Whenever he would find any minor girl going home from school, he used to mislead her on the pretext that her father had sent some clothes or some other articles to give her and take her to an isolated place, he added. In another shocking revelation, he confessed that to rape the minors he used to board a local morning train from Rampur to Ghaziabad.

"In the morning hours, he used to target girls studying in schools in Ghaziabad. In case, he could not find his target, he would travel up to New Ashok Nagar (the places he was familiar to) and fool a minor girl saying 'her father is calling her' by handing over some clothes to her," a source close to investigation told Mail Today.

The source further added that he used to take the girls to an isolated place, preferably to isolated buildings and rape them. Later, in the evening he used to return. For more than three years, he has been following this schedule.

COPS COUNSELLING ACCUSED'S DAUGHTERS

Meanwhile, police have not ruled out the possibility that he could have raped his three daughters as well. They are also trying to counsel Rastogi's own daughter. "On interrogation, Sunil Rastogi admitted he has committed the similar offences with many more girls in New Ashok Nagar, Ghaziabad and Rudrapur in Uttarakhand. It has also been revealed from the interrogation that many cases, including molestation, theft and cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, were registered against the accused at various police stations in Rudrapur, Delhi and Ghaziabad," said Singh.

He also remained in jail in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, but was released on both occasions.

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