Delhi: 12 more cases linked to serial rapist, cops want to make probe watertight

The Delhi Police have linked the involvement of Sunil Rastogi to 12 more cases of sexual abuse of minors reported from across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand between 2004 and 2017.

Sources revealed that five cases were reported from east Delhi between 2004 and 2017, two cases are from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, two from Rampur in UP and three from Ghaziabad again in UP. Earlier, three cases were reported from Rudrapur in Uttarakhand between 2004 and 2016, taking the total number of cases to 15.

All these cases, police said, were registered under sections of molestation, rape and abduction. In most cases, the accused was not identified till date. The investigators went through all the case files and tallied the statement of the complainants to identify the common thread. They found that all the complaints were similar in nature. The minors had described their assaulter as a short skinny man who took them to a terrace on the pretext of giving them new clothes and other goodies.

“We have managed to link 15 cases of sexual abuse of minors with Rastogi. We suspect that there are many more cases. The investigation to identify the cases is on,” a senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police have formed a joint team with the UP and Uttarakhand Police to make it a watertight case. It has also been decided that a list of all the cases against Rastogi will be cited in the court during hearings of individual cases.

Sources also revealed that the trial of the case that was filed in 2006 in Rudrapur is nearing completion and a sentence will be pronounced soon. The police are now pushing for a life sentence for Rastogi in the case. “The purpose is to make this into one consolidated case instead of separate cases of sexual abuse. We are working with teams from different states to make this a strong case,” a police officer said.

The police have also roped in NGOs to counsel the parents of the women who were allegedly assaulted in 2006 in East Delhi but did not lodge a complaint fearing for their lives. Rastogi allegedly threatened to push them off a terrace and cripple them for life if they dared to file a police complaint.

“It is important for these women to come forward and lodge a case. We are constantly trying to convince them to give us a complaint so that we can register an FIR and add them to the existing cases,” a police officer said.