Bhopal: Ramesh Khati, a 40-year-old resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district, who served 15 years in prison for the rape of two minor girls in separate incidents in 2003 and 2014, has been arrested again. This time for the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl with hearing and speech impairments in Rajgarh district.
The minor girl was asleep in her hut in Rajgarh’s Narsinghgarh town with her grandmother and uncle when she was allegedly abducted and raped on 1 February. The next morning, after a frantic search, her family found her in the bushes behind the hut. The police were not alerted immediately.
Nearly 40 hours later, an ASHA worker spotted blood on the girl’s clothes and alerted the police. Officers promptly arrived at the scene and rushed her for medical treatment.
She was initially taken to the district hospital, but as her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to Bhopal’s Hamidia Hospital. She was put on a ventilator, but succumbed to her injuries on 8 February.
After a 16-day manhunt spanning three states—Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh—the police arrested Ramesh Khati in the early hours of 19 February from Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border.
Ramesh Khati is a serial offender with a history of serious crimes. His first recorded offense dates back to 2003 when he was arrested for rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison. After his release in 2013, he was booked for theft in Awantipur Badodiya in Shajapur.
The following year, on 18 June, 2015, he was convicted of raping another minor and sentenced to death by Ashta court in Sehore. Khati, however, challenged the decision in court and was acquitted on 3 March, 2016. The Madhya Pradesh High Court overturned his death penalty on technical grounds, noting that the prosecution failed to prove his guilt.
The court also noted that the presence of the victim’s father during the identification parade could have influenced the process, leading to the commutation of his sentence and eventual release. According to the police, the state has since approached the Supreme Court to challenge the HC’s decision.
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The manhunt
On 1 February, Ramesh Khati boarded a bus to Narsinghgarh. After arriving, he loitered at the bus stop and allegedly attempted to sexually abuse a woman seated nearby. According to Rajgarh SP Aditya Mishra, he later ate at a nearby temple before heading to the mandi area, where the 11-year-old girl was asleep in her hut. Khati then abducted the minor and assaulted her before fleeing Rajgarh and making his way to Shajapur.
According to the police, tracking the accused was challenging as he did not use a mobile phone. Investigators relied on CCTV footage from public spaces and privately installed cameras.
The first clue police got was that a man had tried to molest another woman at the bus stand hours before the rape of the minor. The police began looking for him and learnt that he had reached Narsinghgarh in an auto about 35 km from Biora. Tracing the auto led the police to Ujjain and from there they learnt that he might have left for Prayagraj.
“Realising that he might be caught soon, Ramesh reached Ujjain, then Jaipur before reaching Prayagraj. He later was planning his return and stay at Ujjain when he was caught by the police,” said Mishra.
Pointing out the challenges faced by the police, SP Aditya Mishra explained that the matter was reported following a delay of 40 hours.
“Our inspector initially received information that a girl was unwell. Upon arriving at the scene, he realised the gravity of the situation and immediately rushed her for medical assistance,” said Rajgarh SP Aditya Mishra.
To track down the accused, the police deployed 16 special teams comprising 76 personnel. The teams conducted searches across 19 railway stations and nine districts spanning three states. Mishra noted that officers reviewed over 450 hours of CCTV footage and interrogated 418 suspects before finally apprehending the accused.
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