How 1,200 cops nailed a serial killer in a week

GURUGRAM: A week to the day a three-year-old girl’s unclad body was found in a room in Sector 66, the man accused of raping, torturing and bludgeoning her to death was arrested from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh after the Gurugram Police launched a massive manhunt, pressing into service 1,200 cops from across police stations and crime units for roundthe-clock combing operations in Gwalior, Jhansi and Delhi.

The police on Tuesday said the accused man, 20-year-old accused Sunil Kumar, was a ‘serial killer’ and a paedophile, who confessed to sexually assaulting and murdering at least eight other minor girls in Gurugram, Delhi, Gwalior and Jhansi.

Raj Kumar, sub inspector (SI), crime branch Sector 39, said that during interrogation the accused man told the police that “shauk” led him to commit the crimes.

Police said the first clue was received after a partial image of the accused man was captured in a CCTV camera set up opposite the crime spot in Sector 66.

The police questioned homeless people to zero in on the profile of the accused man. But the main lead was received after the relatives of the accused, who were detained by the police, mentioned certain places in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which the accused visited often, SI Kumar said.

“The victim’s sister said that he ate mostly at community kitchens and langars and engaged in daily wage work. Other relatives mentioned a community in Gwalior and Magarpur village in Jhansi, where he often spent time,” SI Kumar said, adding that the police even set up community kitchens in the city to lure him.

Working on this information, the police circulated his photograph at railway stations and coordinated with their counterparts in different states. Soon, the city police received information that he reached Magarpur village in Jhansi on November 16.

On Monday, around 2pm, the accused was arrested from the village near Bhairon Baba temple after police received a lead that the accused was eating at a bhandara there.

Sumit Kuhar, (DCP) crime, who headed the special investigative team (SIT) formed to nab the accused, said that the November 11 incident was the third rape and murder of a minor girl committed by the accused man in the city and he had evaded arrest in two similar incidents in Gurugram between November 2016 and January 2017.