'Serial killer' held for rape-murder of college student admits to sixth killing in Gujarat

Valsad: A 'serial killer' arrested for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in Valsad district of Gujarat has admitted having committed a sixth murder at Dabhoi in the state in June this year, police said on Tuesday.

Rahul Jat, a native of Rohtak in Haryana, was arrested after the body of a 19-year-old woman college student was found on November 14 near Udvada railway station in Valsad district.

During interrogation, Jat had confessed to having committed four murders in the past.

"He has now confessed to a sixth murder of a visually-challenged youth," Superintendent of Police Karanraj Vaghela said.

During the journey from Pratapnagar in Vadodara on June 8, 2024, Jat befriended Fayaz Ahmed Sheikh who hailed from Nandurbar in Maharashtra.

They got down at Dabhoi in Vadodara district. Jat allegedly took him to an isolated area, strangled him using an iron chain and took away the mobile phone and money he was carrying, SP Vaghela said.

"With this, we have succeeded in cracking one more undetected murder," he added.

Only a day before his arrest, Jat had allegedly robbed a woman and murdered her on a train near Secunderabad in Telangana.

In October, he allegedly raped and murdered a woman on a train near Solapur railway station in Maharashtra. He also stabbed to death an elderly man on Katihar Express near Howrah railway station in West Bengal.

A train passenger murdered near Mulki in Karnataka was also found to be his victim, as per the police.

Jat visited Surat, Valsad and Vapi four to five times in the last one year and had come to Valsad to collect his salary from a hotel where he worked.

He was jailed in 2018-19 and 2024 in cases related to truck theft and illegal arms smuggling in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Jat robbed lone travelers and raped women, especially in the coaches for differently-abled passengers. Nabbing him was difficult for the police as he kept moving and mostly slept at railway platforms and in trains.