Picture for representation only.

RAIPUR: After 20 months of dogged investigation, police have nabbed a ' serial killer ' accused of five murders, including that of a child, in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district.

The investigation started out without a single clue. Several dead-ends later, police scrutinised call details and locations of over 3.5 lakh mobile numbers over the last four months, identified a handful of suspects and kept them under surveillance before moving in to arrest 30-year-old Jitendra Dhruv of Dhamtari.

Jitendra, a labourer, managed to evade police for so long because he was good at hiding his tracks.

His first two victims were women, Parvati and her mother in July 16, 2016. Raipur range IG Pradeep Gupta told reporters on Wednesday that Jitendra was in a relationship with Parvati and her mother walked in on the duo during an intimate moment. Fearing that the secret would get out, Jitendra killed Parvati’s mother, say police. And to hide the first murder, he killed his lover as well.

Parvati’s brother discovered the bodies the next morning. But Jitendra had fled town and police had no clue to follow. They didn’t even know that an affair had led to the double murder, say police.

Jitendra remained low for about 11 months before coming in contact with a family in Telinsatti that used to give people loans by taking valuables as mortgage. Jitendra decided to burgle their house.

On the night of July 13, 2017, he sneaked in and was trying to break into the cupboard where valuables were kept when the noise woke the family. Before they could raise alarm, Dhruv struck. He killed the head of family, Mahendra Sinha, and wife Usha in front of their horrified children. Then, he turned on the kids. Eleven-year-old Mahesh was killed, but his brother survived although he lost an eye. He fled with Rs 2.5 lakh in cash and ornaments.

Police did not realise that the five murders — spaced almost exactly a year apart — were connected. The trail had gone cold in the earlier murders.

While investigating the triple murder, police scanned details of 3.5 lakh cellphone numbers to determine which ones were in the vicinity of Mahendra Sinha’s house. This they cross-checked with the voter list of Telinsatta and neighbouring places and zeroed in on a few suspects. After putting them under surveillance, police believed they had enough to pull in Jitendra for questioning. He cracked under interrogation and admitted to not only the triple murder but also the earlier double murder.

