After a months-long probe, the police have finally zeroed in on a 30-year-old man who is suspected to have raped and killed a 19-year-old woman in Gujarat. But, as the interrogation of Rahul Karamveer Jat, a resident of Rohtak in Haryana, progressed, more secrets began tumbling out. Not one, but Jat confessed to a total of five murders between October and November, four of which happened inside moving trains and one near a railway station.
Police got their first clue from near the body of the slain girl on November 14 in Gujarat when they stumbled across a backpack containing one set of clothes and a mobile charger. This led police to believe that the suspect was a visitor to Gujarat and had possibly travelled via trains.
An intensive manhunt saw the police rummaging through at least 5,000 CCTV cameras at railway stations across Gujarat and Maharashtra. Once the police received a clue about the suspect, they formed an investigation team. The information was passed to all nearby railway stations. He was then found travelling in a train to Vapi in Gujarat from where he was arrested by the police. He was seen wearing the same clothes as those found near the crime scene. The footage also showed Jat eating at the station after committing the brutal act.
He was identified by the Surat Central Jail official. On interrogation, Jat revealed he had killed five people in two months, to the shock of investigation officials.
The murders
Jat is a differently-abled man who contracted polio at the age of five. He confessed to killing five people, including an old man who he entered into an altercation over a cigarette. The accused was first arrested by the Jodhpur police in 2018-19 for theft. He was released on bail from the jail recently, after which he embarked on a killing spree.
He also confessed to having killed a resident of Chikkaballapur identified as Mauzaam after getting into an altercation with him. Jat strangled him and fled with the victim's mobile phone, bag and cash.
Jat is also accused of stabbing a 60-year-old man to death on the Katihar Express train in West Bengal. This reportedly happened on November 19 and a case was registered at the Howrah police station.
Besides the 19-year-old girl, who he dragged into a mango orchard near Udvada station in Gujarat before killing her, Jat allegedly raped and murdered another woman on a train near Solapur railway station in Maharashtra. He also allegedly murdered a Telugu woman near Yadagirigutta railway station.
Modus operandi
Police said Jat mostly slept at railway stations and travelled by train making it difficult to identify him. He also found his victims in moving trains, especially in the coaches meant for differently-abled passengers.
" The latest murder was committed in the Pune-Kanyakumari Express. The victim in this case is still unknown and the police are carrying on the investigation," Valsad Superintendent (SP) Karanraj Vaghela.
