Police in Ayodhya have arrested a 20-year-old youth in connection with the rape and murder of four elderly women in separate incidents in the past 50 days.
The incidents took place in Ayodhya and Barabanki districts and the police claimed that the youth was not known to the victims and he murdered them in cold blood without any apparent motive.
The accused was arrested from Mawai police station area in Ayodhya. Ayodhya Additional SP Atul Kumar Sonkar said: "Amarendra, the accused, killed three women in Barabanki and one woman in Ayodhya.
He committed the four murders in the same manner -- first he raped the women and then killed them." The police had released a picture of the suspected killer on social media and six teams of Barabanki police were engaged in his search.
The police had also appealed to the public to get him arrested. On December 5, 2022, a 60-year-old woman from Khusheti village of Mawai had left home in the morning. When she did not return till evening, the family members lodged a missing person complaint.
The police found her naked body the next day. There were injury marks on the woman's face and head. The post-mortem report revealed that the rape was followed by strangulation.
On December 17, the dead body of a 62-year-old woman was found in a similar state in a field in village Ibrahimabad in Ram Sanehi ghat. On December 29, a woman went missing in Thatharha village, 3 km from Ram Sanehi ghat police station of Barabanki.
Her body was found in a field the next day. This woman was 55-year-old and the pattern of murder was the same. She was also raped. The police were convinced that the murders had been committed by one person, a "psycho killer who was targeting elderly and middle-aged women".
After this, six teams were set up for his arrest. "We received information from Unhauna village under Mawai police station area that on Tuesday a person had attacked a woman and tried to rape and strangulate her. Local residents had caught the person, who was taken into custody by the police," said Satyendra Bhushan Tiwari, deputy SP of Rudauli circle in Ayodhya.
"During interrogation, he revealed that he had raped and killed the other women in Barabanki and Ayodhya. He also admitted that he committed the crimes whenever he found middle-aged and elderly women alone in deserted places."