The 35-year-old Jeevanu alias Sikandar Khan arrested for the gruesome rape of two minors in Jaipur’s Shastri Nagar police station area is a serial sexual predator who used to look for prey every day, police said on Sunday.
“Although there is no term in law (for Jeevanu), but when we checked the records of Jeevanu, we can say that he is a psychopath and serial rapist. In 2004, the accused had allegedly raped a minor boy in Murlipura area of the city,” said Anand Shrivastava, commissioner of police (CP), Jaipur.
“Not only did he rape the minor boy, but he also killed him by drowning the boy in a water tank. After that he was arrested from Ajmer, convicted in the case and awarded life imprisonment,” Shrivastava added.
Jeevanu was out on bail after serving sentence in the case and living as a tenant in Nai Ka Thadi locality falling under the Amber police station area in Jaipur, where he recently raped the 7-year-old girl in Shastri Nagar area.
A police team has brought the 35-year-old accused from Kota, where he was arrested on Saturday, to Jaipur.
Police officials said that scrutiny of Jeevanu’s mobile phone revealed that he had several conversations with sex workers. “Jeevanu’s past record shows he is a manic, who is obsessed with the habit of abusing children and if set free he will perpetrate these crimes again,” said a police officer familiar with the case.
“When we went to his (Jeevanu’s) house, we found that he used to physically harass the daughter of the landlady, who is a widow, and her friends. When the landlady was asked why she never complained to police, she said ‘I scolded him two-three times, after which he stopped doing the wrong things’,” the police officer said.
When police contacted Jeevanu’s neighbours, they came to know that about one and a half years back, he used to live in a room just opposite to his present house. “When the police enquired about Jeevanu, the house owner told police that he was thrown out of his house because he even tried to physically molest his granddaughter, who was around seven years old,” the police officer added.
Another police officer familiar with the case, citing a recent incident, said that on June 4, Jeevanu went to meet a female friend in Sanganer, who is a sex worker. When he reached Sanganer, the accused requested a minor boy to give his phone to him for making a call. After making the call to her friend, Jeevanu kissed the boy and asked to come with him. “He (Jeevanu) said (to the boy), ‘Come with me I am going to Deoli (a town in Tonk district)’. The minor felt uncomfortable, refused his offer, took his phone and went towards his home,” the police officer said.
Police officers claimed that Jeevanu is a “vagabond and smack addict”.
“He would do some labour to earn money. With that money he used to buy drugs and wander place to place looking for a prey,” said one of them.
Jeevanu used to get so much hallucinated by the drugs that he would not even worry about what is happening around. “In 2017, when Jeevanu molested two minor girls in a crowded place in the same locality where the two minors were raped recently, he was in inebriated condition. He was not even afraid that people were around him. When a constable tried to intervene, Jeevanu hit him with a steel rod on his head and injured him,” said the police officer.
The modus operandi of Jeevanu was that he would lure the children, take them to a secluded place and rape them, the police said, adding that if the victim resisted, he would beat them and sometimes kill them.
Shrivastava said the police have recovered a steel box from Jeevanu’s room, in which two toy guns and a diary were kept. “In the diary, Jeevanu has drawn his wife’s sketch with tears in her eyes. He has drawn his own illustration with a caption ‘sikandar maut ka kehar’,” the district police chief said.
Police said a team of psychologists would be roped in the investigation to find out whether the accused is a pedophile, a person who is sexually attracted to children
According to the police, Jeevanu got married to a woman in 2017. “When Jeevanu’s wife was questioned, she told police that she left her within months because he was not a man of character. Because of his actions and deeds, she started living separately,” said Laxman Gaur, additional CP.
Jeevanu’s father died when he was two-three years old. After that her mother married another man and his stepfather did not treat him well.
“The stepfather did not care for him and he started consuming opium, smack, pot etc. Jeevanu has two sisters who are married. His mother has also died,” said Gaur. He left studies after Class 7.
Jeevanu was arrested from Kota when he had gone to meet a familiar person in the Bhimganj Mandi area after remaining untraceable for five days.
At least 12 cases are registered against him including three cases of rape, one of murder, in which he was sentenced, one case of attempt to murder, two cases of molestation, two cases of theft and three cases of burglary.
“After his arrest, we expect that a few more complainants will come forward (against his name),” said a police officer.