This story is from January 17, 2017

Delhi: How 3 girls escaped paedophile predator

Saima and Neha, both 10, and seven-year-old Guddi (names changed) are residents of A-Block, New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi.
Delhi: How 3 girls escaped paedophile predator
A girl is seen following Rastogi who is on the phone; but midway, she senses something is wrong and stops in her tracks.
Key Highlights
  • Sunil Rastogi, the paedophile arrested in Delhi, used to live in a slum in Uttarakhand.
  • He was jailed for three months for sexually assaulting a girl.
NEW DELHI: Saima and Neha, both 10, and seven-year-old Guddi (names changed) are residents of A-Block, New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi. They have something else in common too - all three girls were separately targeted by paedophile Sunil Rastogi on December 13 but managed to escape before the predator could scar their childhood.
Another minor girl wasn't so fortunate on that fateful Tuesday.
She was lured to the rooftop of a rented house and allegedly raped. It was the first of two crimes that led to the paedophile's arrest - and his reported confession of having abused 500 children in 12 years.
All three girls narrated chilling tales to TOI about their narrow escape. For Saima, it was the first time she had left home alone, to buy a pen for a school project. Rastogi intercepted her as she was walking down Mata Mandir Gali around 6pm and asked her for her father's name.
Rastogi was wearing the same striped sweater and jeans, which according to him, gave him the "prowess" to go for his prey.
"He pretended to call him saying that he would hand over some goods to me which I had to take home. He then asked me to follow him," the girl said. He took her to an apartment and started walking up the stairs. "When I hesitated, he started threatening her," she said.
"I turned and started running towards the busy market. There I sought help from a woman who looked familiar. The man ran after me but fled when he saw the woman, who also took me back home," she said.

"Later, when I saw the CCTV footage of Rastogi, I could identify him," she added.
When the girl's father, who owns a shop in the area, came to know about the incident, he scanned footage from CCTV cameras installed at shops on the street. He compiled clips from more than 10 cameras that showed Rastogi luring the girl. However, before he could take the footage to the police, he met with an accident.
Saima's father said a similar-looking man had targeted his sister 12 years ago. She too had managed to escape. The assaulter was most probably Rastogi, he said, because that man worked at the same tailoring shop where the paedophile was employed at that time.
"He was caught by the public back then after which we had informed the shop-owner who had promised to dismiss him immediately. However, he kept coming back on and off to target girls in the area," said the father.
Locals at A-Block, where Rastogi worked, said he chose the particular area for the crimes since it was very close to Noida. "It was easy for him to escape into Uttar Pradesh if the cops came looking for him," said Sushil Kumar Mishra, who owns a stationery shop at the market.
Following the three incidents on December 13, local shopkeepers had printed his photograph, culled from CCTV footages, and put it up a at schools and photocopy shops to warn people about him.
Parents of Neha say that he had lured her around 1.30pm while she was returning from school. "She was walking with three friends when he lured her into one of the rented houses he usually chose for the crime. However, she raised an alarm which alerted the caretaker of the house, who went around the building to check. That's when he let her off," said the child's mother.
After the incident, the girl's mother met the school teacher, who made it mandatory for parents to accompany their children to and from school.
Locals said the A-Block area has three private schools and a number of stationery shops, which made it a preferred hunting ground for Rastogi.
Guddi, 7, who studies in the same school as Neha, was found with Rastogi by a neighbour around 3pm on the same day. When the neighbour caught hold of her to ask where she was going, Rastogi quietly disappeared. "We could save her because I happened to spot her in time," says the neighbour.
Mishra said circulars have been put up in the locality asking residents to accompany their children if they left home. The two children who were seen walking with Rastogi in a video recovered on Sunday too were from the same colony.
A case of abduction was registered against Rastogi based on the two kids' statement.
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