Man acquitted of child's murder arrested for raping and killing elderly woman in Rajkot

RAJKOT: Months after being acquitted by Gujarat High Court of the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl, for which he was given the death sentence by the trial court, a 33-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping and killing a 76-year-old woman whose body was found near Aji Dam on Aug 21. The accused, Ramesh Vaidhukiya, was identified after police teams scanned footage from CCTVs along a 13-km stretch. The woman’s body was found near Mogal Mataji temple on the banks of the Aji Dam along the Rajkot-Bhavnagar highway. Initially, Aji Dam police registered an accidental death case and sent the body for a forensic postmortem. The woman’s identity was later established through information published in newspapers, said Aji Dam police inspector Haresh Patel.

The woman used to beg near Sat Hanuman temple on the Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway. According to her grandson, he had dropped her off near the temple on the morning of Aug 19. When he returned in the evening, she was missing. After failing to trace her, he lodged a missing person’s complaint at Kuwadva Road police station on Aug 20. “CCTV footage from Sat Hanuman Temple to Aji Dam showed that Vaidhukiya picked up the woman in his rickshaw after promising to drop her home. He allegedly took her to various locations, assaulted her with a stick and raped her at a secluded spot. He then allegedly beat her to death with the stick. Vaidhukiya then wrapped her body in a cloth and dumped it near Aji Dam,” said Rakesh Desai, incharge DCP Zone 1. In 2018, he was booked at Thorala police station in connection with the abduction, rape and murder of a three-year-old girl. “In March 2020, Vaidhukiya was sentenced to death in this case. He challenged the conviction in the high court, which acquitted him in Feb this year, a senior officer told TOI. The high court had observed that the prosecution case rested largely on circumstantial evidence, with gaps in the chain of circumstances. It also noted that the prosecution’s claims were not supported by CCTV footage. The court also pointed to deficiencies relating to the reconstruction panchnama and DNA evidence and granted the accused the benefit of doubt.