How 500 hrs of CCTV Footage and Walking Style Helped Navi Mumbai Police To Nab Serial Rapist

Since past many months, the people of Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar district were living in fear of a serial rapist, who had been targeting minor girls. In past one and half year, this rapist had raped and molested 15 minor girls. Police teams of four cities were searching him day and night but despite all the efforts, they were unsuccessful in nabbing him. 

Here's a study of how the police was able to nab him. 

Police focused on the patterns of all the cases 

During the investigation, police noticed a few things which were unique. Like, all the rape cases occurred mainly on Thursday, Wednesday or Friday. He changed his looks on regular intervals. He traveled mostly in a local train. Police came across many CCTV footages in which he was seen while boarding a train but police were not able to see on which station he was alighting. Only once, he was seen alighting at the Mira road station.

In all the cases, he had targeted only those girls who were between 8-13 yrs old. His modus operandi was almost the same in all the cases. On the day committing a crime, accused used to do the recce for 3 hours. 

READ | Pune Horror: 2 Minor Girls Raped; One Succumbs, Other In Deep Trauma. Two Accused, Including One Juvenile, Nabbed

Police scanned 500 hrs of CCTV footage 

The rapist was captured in a CCTV at many places. On the basis of CCTV image of the offender, various teams had been formed to search him. Apart from the teams who were working on the field, commissioner of Navi Mumbai police had formed a special technical team whose job was to scan all the footages which were gathered from various places. During the investigation, Police had collected almost 500 hrs of CCTV footage.

For many weeks police were scanning the CCTV footages. During this, police noticed that the accused had a unique walking style. 

After this, police started closely monitoring all the passengers who were getting down at Mira road station and who had matched the walking style. 

According to Navi Mumbai police, accused’s name is Rehan Qureshi. He is 34 year old and works as a salesman. Police has seized his clothes, shoes and a laptop from his residence.