The accused in the alleged rape and beheading of a three-year-old in Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur is not only a serial offender but a father of three children, one of them a girl studying in Class 10.

Thirty-seven-year-old Rinku Sahu picked a child sleeping next to her mother at the Tatanagar railway station, allegedly raped and beheaded her before dumping the body, which was recovered on Tuesday night at the instance of Sahu who was arrested on Monday, along with accomplice Kailash Kumar, after being identified in the CCTV footage.

According to rail police, Sahu is married and has two sons and a daughter. His daughter studies is in Class 10 in a city-based school while his elder son is 7-year-old and the younger 5-year-old . His father’s name is Ashok Sahu who runs a tea-cumsnacks shop in Kasidih locality while his mother Tara Sahu is a constable in Giridih district.

“When we contacted Rinku Sahu’s mother, she said the family was fed-up with him and his activities. She has now got admitted in Giridih sadar hospital. She was on duty at Deogarh for Kanwar Yatra at Baba Baidyanathdham,” police said, adding that co-accused Kailash Kumar (36) is son of a CRPF personnel Sant Ram. Kumar is resident of Kasidih area under Sakchi police station.

Tatanagar rail superintendent of police (SP) Dr Ehtesham Waquarib told HT that investigation so far found that Sahu was a psychopath having history of stealing children. “Rinku Sahu has done so with two more children under Telco and Sakchi PS previously for which he was convicted and served jail terms,” the SP said.

Sahu had first abducted a six-year-old boy, son of Kasidihbased Sahu, on September 13, 2008, police said. The boy has not been traced yet. However, Sahu admitted to Tatanagar rail police that he had abducted the boy, but said he had released him.

The boy’s mother had lodged a complaint (case no- 227/08) in the Sakchi police station alleging that Sahu attempted to rape her, pointing a knife but when she resisted he took her son away with him. “I pleaded with him repeatedly to release my son, but he held him hostage and kept pressurising me to have illicit relation with him.

Subsequently, I am filing this case against him seeking safe release of my son and his immediate arresting,” mother of the abducted boy, had written in her complaint, copy of which is with HT. The second child-lifting case against Sahu was lodged with Telco police station on April 18, 2015.

“Rinku Sahu confessed to abducting a seven-year-old son of Pramod Thakur from Jemco locality under Telco PS. In this case, he was convicted by a local court in March 2018 and sentenced to 2-year jail term. He had left the boy dumped assuming to be dead but police had recovered the boy, and he survived. He was released from jail few weeks ago,” said Noor Mustafa Ansari, Tatanagar GRP deputy superintendent of police (DSP).