Nearly a decade after minors were raped in Kurla, the Central Unit of the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch has solved the cases by matching the serial rapist’s DNA with the evidence collected.
The DNA of Rehan Abdul Rashid Qureshi (34) has matched with the evidence collected in one of the rape and murder cases, which dates back to 2010.
Investigations that followed Qureshi’s arrest on September 27 at Naya Nagar in Mira Road revealed that he was the psychopath wanted in rape and murder cases in 2010. On February 2010, a six-year-old girl was playing outside her house in Nehru Nagar and later went missing. Her body was found at the steps of a housing society nearby.
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In the other two cases, the body of a nine-year-old girl was found on the terrace of the police quarters of Nehru Nagar police station in March 2010. The body of another nine-year-old girl was found on the roof of a house at Vatsalatai Nagar in June 2010. The DNA collected in one of the cases had been preserved at the Kalina Forensic Laboratory, which matched with Qureshi’s.
“While we were checking undetected cases of the rape of minors, we found that there were cases in Kurla which were not solved. We matched the DNA and found it to be positive,” said a Crime Branch official. Details of the case will be revealed by Commissioner Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday.
After the minors’ bodies were found in 2010, the Mumbai Police had tested the DNA of around 800 people who knew the victims, besides those who came into the locality daily for work, including the small industrial units in the area.
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