Delhi tailor says he sexually abused 500 kids in 12 years

New Delhi, Jan 16: In a shocking confession, a 38-year-old tailor arrested for attempting to molest two minor girls in the city has told police that he had sexually abused around 500 kids almost unchecked over a 12-year period.

Police said the paedophile, Sunil Rastogi, claimed to have attempted assault on more than 2,500 minors during this period and was jailed for six months in Rudrapur, Uttarak hand, for an offence in 2006.

Rastogi preyed on victims in Delhi, west UP and Uttarakhand, mostly targeting girls walking home from school, police said. He had worked for some time at a tailoring shop in east Delhi and used to frequently return to the area looking for work.

Delhi Police have now linked Rastogi to six cases, three in Delhi, two in Rudrapur and one in Bilaspur district. How the serial offender got away with his crimes for so long must come as a wake-up call for the cops, particularly since Rastogi was known to be a sexual deviant. In 2004, he and his family were thrashed and forced to leave Mayur Vihar after he had tried to assault a neighbour's daughter. The countdown to Rasto gi's arrest began on De cember 13, when a 10year-old girl was sexually assaulted on her way back from school. The child did not complain about it till her parents got suspicious of her behaviour and counselled her.While the cops had launched a search to nab him based on the child's description, another case of two children being abducted in a similar way was reported at the New Ashok Nagar police station on January 12.

The girls aged 9 and 10, who were returning from tuition classes, were lured by Rastogi on the promise of new clothes.He took them below the stairs of an under-construction bui lding and tried to assault them, but they had raised an alarm after which he fled.

"A team led by sub-inspector Sandeep from New Ashok Nagar police station was tasked to track him down thereafter and he was arrested from a hideout near the Kondli village," said DCP , east Omvir Singh Bishnoi.

While being interrogated, Rastogi revealed that he has been committing the crimes since 2004. He had come to Delhi in 1990 with his parents and started aiding his father at a tailoring shop. Later, he took up a job and worked at a shop near Mayur Vihar before being hounded out for his deviant behaviour.

Rastogi said he had since shifted based to Rudrapur, where he sold off his ancestral land and property to make ends meet. He was arrested and jailed for six months in 2006 for sexually assaulting a girl while she was working at a farm. The family was ousted from the locality and had started living in a rented house in Bilaspur. He used to travel to Delhi on weekends to look for jobs. Rastogi said after identifying his victim, he used to lure them on some pretext, take them to isolated spots and sexually assault them.

If the girls resisted, he would let them off and leave the city. He would also blackmail his victims into returning to him time and again.

Delhi Police has set up a special investigations team to look for other victims since they suspect that most some his crimes went unreported.