The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Accused had a pattern, say girls who escaped
‘SERIAL RAPIST’
THE 38-YEAR-OLD alleged paedophile arrested by police on Sunday used a similar modus operandi almost every time, telling girls he knew their fathers before leading them to isolated spots, speaking to the girls he targeted has revealed. The accused would sometimes target multiple girls in one day.
The Indian Express Monday met four schoolgirls, aged between 7 and 11, who were targeted by the accused, including one who was allegedly raped.
The accused was arrested after police received a complaint from the parents of a sevenyear-old, whom he allegedly raped. According to the DCP, the accused, Sunil Rastogi, told police he tried to sexually assault about 600 girls.
In their New Ashok Nagar home, parents of a 10-year-old girl, who had allegedly been taken to a dark alley by the accused but escaped, said they were in shock. The girl’s father said she had gone to buy stationery from a shop nearby at 7.45 pm on December 13 — the first time he had left her alone. That’s when the accused approached her.
A few minutes later, the girl returned home, accompanied by an old woman. “She told us what happened. I also looked at CCTV footage from the area. The man stopped my daughter and pretended he was speaking to me on the phone. He took her to a building, but when they were climbing the stairs, she suspected something was wrong and started screaming. She ran away and caught an old woman’s hand and asked her to drop her home,” the father said. He said he did not lodge a police complaint as his daughter was “scared”.
The CCTV footage was then shown to other children in the area. A nine-year-old girl, who saw the video, then narrated her ordeal from the same day. She said she had stepped outside school with some friends when the accused approached her and said her father had sent him.
“The uncle took me to a building, it was very dark... I saw something in his pocket and I got scared. Then the caretakers’ daughter came towards us and asked him what he was doing... he didn’t answer, he just ran away,” said the girl.
The girl’s mother said they did not approach police because she did not want the incident to become public.
Also on same day, a sevenyear-old girl was allegedly raped in the same locality. The girl told The Indian Express that she, too, was taken to a desolate spot by the accused. “When I started crying, he finally let me go and ran away,” the girl said.
Another 10-year-old girl who was targeted later said she and her brother were returning from tuition classes when the accused stopped her.
This time, too, he told them their father had sent him. “He asked my brother to go home and took me to a building... When he was taking me to the rooftop, I asked him about my father and he did not reply... So I ran away,” the girl said. When her parents approached police, a kidnapping complaint was lodged on January 12.