An award-carrying fugitive with eight criminal cases including that of rape and murder of minor children against him was arrested by police after a brief gun encounter here, a senior officer said Saturday.
"Our team arrested Ramji Verma, a resident of Khudaganj in the nearby Farrukhabad district. Verma has over eight cases ranging from rape and murder of minor children against him in Kannauj and Farrukhabad," Superintendent of Police Kunwar Anupam Singh said.
Verma had earlier been arrested in 2019 in a rape and murder case and was currently out on bail. While out of jail, he tried to rape another 13-year-old girl in October 2022 in Kannauj, police said.
The lack of witnesses, in that case, led police in January this year to announce a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information leading to the culprit.
Police had been close on the heels of Verma having identified him as the accused about a fortnight ago.
"Verma was surrounded by our team and arrested after an encounter in the early hours of Friday. He sustained a bullet injury in his leg in the encounter and was taken to hospital for medical care," said the SP.
As per police records, Verma kidnapped, sodomised, and killed a five-year-old in 2018. He sodomised another seven-year-old a few months later and tried to rape another girl the same year.
"In most cases, there were no eyewitnesses and the survivors couldn't identify the accused. Because of this, it was very difficult to track Verma down and make a strong case against him," the SP said.
Meanwhile, police have found that Verma has been posting pictures and videos of him harassing minors on social media.
"We are looking into his social media accounts to get more information about his criminal activities," the officer said, adding, the police will invoke the stringent National Security Act against Verma.
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