Serial rapist, acquitted on technical grounds, now held for raping speech and hearing impaired minor girl in M.P.

A convicted serial-rapist, now accused of raping a 11-year-old speech and hearing impaired girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district, was arrested on February 19. Representative image

A convicted serial-rapist, now accused of raping a 11-year-old speech and hearing impaired girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district, was arrested on February 19 (Wednesday) by the State Police in a joint operation with the Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh police forces, officers said.

According to the Rajgarh Police, accused Ramesh Khati, 40, a resident of Shajapur district’s Avantipur Badodia area, had raped the minor girl, who was also dealing with a mental illness, on the intervening night of February 1 and 2 in Narsinghgarh town. The girl was found in the bushes the next morning with multiple injuries on her body and a medical examination confirmed the rape.

The girl, however, succumbed to injuries on February 8 during treatment at Bhopal’s Hamidia Hospital. The girl, whose parents had already passed away, lived with her 80-year-old grandmother and aunt.

A case was registered at Narsinghgarh police station under multiple charges of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Narsinghgarh sub-divisional police officer Upendra Bhati told The Hindu that Khati was nabbed around 2.40 a.m. on February 19 near Rajgarh’s Bhojpur village after he got down from a train near the M.P.-Rajasthan boundary.

“The train was constantly being tracked from Jaipur as we had credible inputs that he had boarded the train from there. He deboarded the train near the State boundary and was on the run when we nabbed him,” he said, adding that he was presented before a court and has been sent to police remand.

The accused, a repeat offender, was convicted first time in 2003 for raping a five-year-old girl in his home district’s Mubarikpur village and sentenced for 10 years.

After being released from jail in 2013, he again went on to kidnapping and raping an eight-year-old girl in 2014 in Sehore district’s Ashta, and was given capital punishment.

However, in March 2016, the Madhya Pradesh High Court revoked his punishment on technical grounds and acquitted him.

After walking free in 2016, the Rajgarh Police, in an official statement, said that Khati was also booked in a case under the Arms Act in 2022.

The Rajgarh Police said that the accused was nabbed after a 16-day-long chase involving 16 police teams of the three States, searches in nine districts by raiding several places and 17 railway stations such as Jaipur, Prayagraj, Ujjain, Ratlam, Neemuch, Shajapur, Bhopal, Vidisha, Sehore and various small stations.

The police also scanned through more than 400 hours of CCTV footages and questioned 418 people to identify and locate him.

Mr. Bhati said that Khati had been tracked in Prayagraj where he had gone to take a dip during the Maha Kumbh.

“He had been constantly changing his location and we were hoping that he does not go to Prayagraj,” he said, adding that given the current crowd in Prayagraj it was “quite challenging” to track him there.

From Prayagraj, he went to Jaipur where he was caught in a CCTV footage for about one second.

“Our biggest challenge was that he was not using a mobile phone. So, we were tracking where some of his family members and friends were getting calls from,” Mr. Bhati said, adding, “But he made some mistakes like calling someone from different numbers from the same area and gave us clues.”

Mr. Bhati said that he was finally nabbed while trying to reach his village after he got down from the train hoping to enter his village.

“He took a train on Jaipur-Kota route which is not the usual route taken to reach his village. He was probably trying to get to his village via a different route,” he said.

Mr. Bhati also said that the girl’s family did not report the matter to the police and it was only on February 3 when someone in their neighbourhood saw her condition and alerted the local police.

“Despite her injuries and bleeding, the family neither alerted the police nor took her to the hospital for 40 hours,” he added.