The rape and murder of a 19-year-old college student, whose body was found in a mango orchard in Udvada in Valsad district earlier this month, was the work of a serial killer who had robbed and killed at least four other people in various trains passing through different states in a month, including a woman he had raped, Gujarat police said.
A woman was recently killed inside a train passing through Secunderabad in Telangana, police said.
The accused, Rahul alias Bholu Karamveer Jat, 30, a resident of Rohtak in Haryana, was arrested on Sunday evening when he alighted at the Vapi railway station after boarding the train from Bandra in Mumbai.
The murders were committed in trains passing through states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Telangana between October 20 and November 24, police said.
On November 14, the accused came to Udwada to collect his payment from a hotel where he worked as a waiter. He was waiting for a local train to Vapi, from where he had to leave for Mumbai, when he saw the teenager walking alone on the railway platform. He followed her and took her to a mango orchard where he raped and strangulated her to death before returning to Vapi, police said.
A team of Mumbai police tracked the accused based on a tip-off while he was travelling in the Bandra-Bhuj Express train. As soon as the train reached Vapi railway station, officers posted there arrested him and brought him to the police station.
