Five years on, man wanted for murder, rape held

The Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday arrested a 33-year-old man, who was wanted for 11 serious offences, including murders, rape, extortion and dacoity, since 2014.

The Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday arrested a 33-year-old man, who was wanted for 11 serious offences, including murders, rape, extortion and dacoity, since 2014. The accused, Arumugam Raja Jothimani Devendra – known by the aliases Kundumani Raja and Peta Raj – had been in hiding since March and was nabbed from Kandivli.He was wanted in one murder and one rape case in Mumbai.

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In March 2014, Arumugam stabbed a 25-year-old man, slit his throat and then dumped his body in a forest off the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. “He used to reside at Aarey Colony at the time,” said Akbar Pathan, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch.

On May 26, 2014, Arumugam and his three aides barged into a house at Aarey Colony and raped a 22-year-old woman at knife point. “The accused had stabbed the survivor’s husband and made a video of the incident,” said police inspector Sagar Sivalkar of unit 12.

Following this, he fled to his native place in Tamil Nadu. Here, he was involved in four murder cases, including a double murder case in 2016 for which he was arrested. In 2018, he released on bail.

In March this year, Arumugam murdered another man in Tamil Nadu and then fled to Mumbai and rented a room in Kandivli. Based on a tip off, a team led by assistant police inspector Atul Avhad of unit 12 laid a trap and arrested him on Wednesday. The accused confessed to the crime, said Santosh Rastogi, joint commissioner of police of the crime branch.