In a recent development, Navi Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Kumar issued a statement on the eight-year-old serial rape and murder case of two minor girls in Nehru Nagar, Kurla in Mumbai.

Sanjay Kumar had formed a special team and asked his counterparts to get the accused Rehan Qureshi's DNA profiling done. The results matched and it was found that Qureshi was the one who had raped the two victims and killed them. One of the victim's body was found on the terrace of police quarters where senior police inspector of Nehru Nagar police station resided.

Sanjay Kumar said, "Maharashtra is fully equipped with highly advanced forensic laboratories and it has been of great help. The accused was arrested on basis of cases registered in Navi Mumbai during the investigation. We were trying to understand the pattern of crimes that happened there. Two cases of serial rape and murder of minors happened in Nehru Nagar in Kurla in 2010 after which DNA profiling of 958 suspects was done but the case remained unsolved. We did DNA analysis of Rehan Qureshi who was staying in Kurla in 2010 and sent it to FSL and the results were positive. The accused had targeted several minors in a similar manner and is a psychopath and when confronted with the evidence, he confessed to having committed the crime."

"In August 2010, Qureshi left the country for a job in Saudi Arabia where he stayed for the next two years. When asked about the Nehru Nagar cases, he said that when police presence increased and he came to know that police were looking for the accused in the two cases, he stopped leaving his residence. He is a psychopath and said that he didn't feel anything on what he was doing and he did it because he felt like doing it. Also, the place he chose for the crime would be random and that is how he landed on the police quarter's terrace. In the two cases, he smothered one of the victims when she tried to raise an alarm and strangulated the other for the same reason".

The Nehru Nagar case led to the DNA profiling of hundreds of persons who were suspected and created a bank for the first time in India. People lived in fear in areas of Nehru Nagar. Families stopped sending their children alone out of their houses. Small-scale industries were shut due to constant police verification and questioning. The arrest of Qureshi finally has given some relief.

DCP Tushar Doshi of Navi Mumbai said, "The accused remained at large for a long time and when he was arrested, several cases which remained unsolved came to light. He would take minor girls on the pretext of using names of their relatives and take them to a secluded spot. He would tell them that there was an insect in their clothes and then remove their clothing and molested them. If the victim resisted or raised an alarm he would flee from the spot. DNA profiling helped us but nabbing him was difficult. This should be maintained all over the country and profiling of all the sexual offenders should be done and stored so that in cases of sexual offences it could be used to nab the culprits".

Also read: India's first criminal DNA databank helps nab rape and murder accused after 8 years