Why was a paedophile who abused 500 kids arrested after 13 yrs?

Iam surprised how Sunil Rastogi, a serial paedophile, who sexually abused and molested around 500 children, remained scot-free for 13 years. How is it possible that no one ever noticed or got a whiff of his obnoxious behaviour - both within his family and with the children in his vicinity?

Rastogi, arrested about four months ago, was married and had five children - three of them girls. Besides, he had been arrested on two previous occasions, and had also been beaten up and thrown out of his family. This would have us believe that his filthy behaviour and activities were known to his family. Then why did no one make the simple effort to report his misdemeanours to the police earlier?

For me, his much-delayed arrest proves that we, as rational citizens, have miserably failed in protecting our vulnerable children from the clutches of a habitual sexual offender - by giving him a choice to become one. Nobody is a serial paedophile by birth. Such people are created by us. It is because we choose to remain mute spectators and close our eyes to the wrongs around us that such criminals are emboldened.

This also happens because we don’t support the victims and, in fact, end up shielding the abusers by not reporting the cases . It is also because there are many among us who don’t know that if something unfair happens to us we should speak up and not suffer in silence.

This sorry state of affairs is also because many of us follow a hedonistic lifestyle and are least bothered by what’s happening in the society. Till the time something happens to us.

Our law enforcement agencies’ snail-paced work and sloppiness in enforcing laws are also contributing factors. If a criminal has no fear of law, the society is bound to doom. When the offenders are let off due to loopholes in the legal mechanism, they become truly dangerous.

It’s high time that India incorporated a foolproof method to track and trap repeated sexual offenders and paedophiles.

It should be made mandatory for police stations to maintain records of sexual offenders and upload their personal details such as fingerprints, DNA samples and Aadhar card details to all state websites and the national crime record bureau (NCRB) database.

Such a system can help instil a certain degree of fear in criminals and act as a deterrent.

Nations like the United States, the first in the world to pass the national sex offender registration law way back in 1994, have set an example for the world. Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, South Korea, South Africa and many other countries have similar laws.

Last year, I read it in a newspaper that the government was considering a proposal to create India’s first registry for sex offenders, which was then in its primary stage. It was a heartening piece of news. My humble submission to the government is that our criminal justice system should have effective measures like these incorporated in it at the earliest. This is what will make it robust.