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

Serial rapist arrested for raping 11-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh, accused of multiple previous offenses, captured after 16-day chase.

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.