Man wanted for murder of garment merchant caught after 20 years
According to the police, the arrested person identified as Rupesh Rai had changed his name and native place's address in all his government identity cards due to which he could not be arrested earlier.
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Accused Rai claimed that he killed Rathod for money as he was carrying Rs 1.3 lakh cash. (Representational/file) Twenty years after a garment merchant was killed inside a hotel room in Vile Parle, the Mumbai police have managed to trace and arrest a 42-year-old man who had robbed and killed him using a butter knife.
According to the police, the arrested person identified as Rupesh Rai had changed his name and native place’s address in all his government identity cards due to which he could not be arrested earlier.
The police said the murder took place on April 3, 2003. The garment merchant, identified as Deepak Rathod who hailed from Delhi, had come to Mumbai with Rs 1.3 lakh cash for some business related work.
“Rathod used to teach Rai driving in Delhi and had brought him along with him as company,” said an investigating officer. They came to Mumbai on March 31, 2003 after which they checked into Hotel Nest near Vile Parle railway station.
Around 10 am on April 3, 2003, the room service staff went and knocked on the door but when nobody responded, the staffer informed his manager after which they opened the room using a master key.
They found Rathod in a pool of blood and subsequently informed the police and a case of murder and destruction of evidence was registered.
As Rai, who had checked into the hotel with Rathod, was missing from the crime scene, the police team started looking for him.
The police team repeatedly went to his native place in Bihar but could not get any lead on the suspect as his relatives were not co-operating.
Recently, the investigators visited his village again and took down the phone numbers of all his friends, relatives, neighbours and parents.
“We studied the call data record of each phone number when we found that some of them were repeatedly getting calls from one mobile phone. The number belonged to one Atul Kedia,” said an investigating officer.
The police team from Santacruz police station then went back to the village and interrogated them again when they came to know that the number belongs to the suspect that they have been looking for the past 20 years.
Subsequently, a team from Santacruz police station was sent and he was arrested from a sweet shop in Thane.
The accused was thoroughly interrogated during which the accused confessed to the crime.
Rai claimed that he killed Rathod for money as he was carrying Rs 1.3 lakh cash.
After that he kept changing his location from Goa to Jharkhand. Rai even stayed in Mira Road for a while before shifting to Thane.
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