A 38-year-old tailor was arrested on Saturday after he was suspected to be involved in three sexual attacks during probes on young girls since December in Delhi. The father of five, Sunil Rastogi allegedly confessed to assaulting hundreds of schoolgirls over a period of 14 years.
The alleged pedophile used to travel in and out of Delhi and allegedly take girls to deserted places telling that he had to send clothes for their parents. His confessions have stumped the police, who are wondering how he went untraced for so long.
Earlier, he was even imprisoned in 2006 for six months in Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur, where he lives. “The accused told us he used to target girls between 7 and 10. Whenever he would find any girl going home from school, he used to mislead her on the pretext that her father had sent some clothes or some other articles to give her and take her to an isolated place,” senior police officer Omvir Singh said on Sunday as per a report in NDTV.
Notably, Rastogi has five children including three daughters and two sons. The daughters are being counseled and the police are trying to discover whether they were targeted as well.
Years ago in 2004, the man was thrashed and hounded out of his home in east Delhi after he allegedly assaulted a neighbour’s daughter.
His case came into the light after two families reported to the police on Jan 10 that their daughters were kidnapped and attacked. The girls told their parents that a man took them to a half-constructed building and escaped when they shouted.
Another rape case had also been filed based on the statement of another little girl on December 13. The police noticed a pattern and suspected that the same man was involved.
After examining CCTV footage, police traced Rastogi. After a probe, it became clear that the school dropout has been charged with drugs, theft and molestation in many other cases.
Rastogi, who is from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, came to Delhi in 1990 with his family.
