A 28-year-old man, arrested on Thursday for sodomy and murder of a factory worker, claimed to have forced nearly 50 people to have sex with him over the past few years despite being HIV positive, Madhya Pradesh police said.
According to investigators, the suspect said he evaded law enforcement for a long time because his victims, whom he targeted late at night on the streets of Bhopal, did not file any police complaint against him.
The worker’s body was found on May 24. “Police found the body of a man who was working in a factory in Mandeep,” said Sunil Dubey, city inspector at Katara Hills police station.
He added: “We were treating the case as a murder case, but during the investigation the accused informed us that he repeatedly raped the deceased under the pretext of helping him find a good hotel. When the deceased threatened to file a complaint with the police, he hit him three times with a rock, killing him. He took the deceased’s mobile phone and sold it to someone else.”
Dubey added that the mobile phone helped the police track down and arrest the accused.
Police are now tracking down the survivors after the accused tested positive for HIV on Friday following a medical examination.
“He said he was never arrested because people were too ashamed to report him to the police, while some voluntarily dealt with him. The police are now trying to identify them. He was also active in an LGBTQ community group and targeted men while hiding his illness. Police are now tracking down individuals with whom he was in contact,” Additional Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Kashyap said.
A case has been registered under Section 103 (murder) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), but more sections will be added after investigation, the officer said.
