New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, a middle-aged tailor, who was recently arrested by Delhi Police, confessed on Monday that he had sexually abused over 500 children, mostly girls, in the last 12 years.

“I do not know what would come over me. I got so used to attacking children. I used to take them away. They were 10-11 years old. I did it in Delhi and Ghaziabad,” 38-year-old Sunil Rastogi told the media.

Rastogi has three daughters and two sons. The police are trying to find out whether he assaulted his daughters also.

“He used to target school-going girls and so far we have found his involvement in 12 such cases. Further investigation is on. But he himself has confessed to attacking hundreds of girls over a period of 12 years,” Omvir Bishnoi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, East, told media.

Rastogi, arrested on Saturday, was jailed for six months in Rudrapur in Uttarakhand in a similar case in 2006. On Saturday, he was arrested from his hideout in Kondli village by a team of policemen from New Ashok Nagar police station in East Delhi.

“Rastogi worked at a tailoring shop in Delhi for some time and used to often return to the Kondli area in search of work. He mostly targeted minor girls returning home from school,” Bishnoi stated.

The CCTV footage from various spots in Delhi and Ghaziabad revealed Rastogi to the police. Rastogi hails from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and had come to Delhi in 1990 with his family.

He had been committing crimes since 2004. He had later shifted to Rudrapur in Uttrakhand where he sold-off his ancestral property to finance his family’s needs.

Rastogi use to carry a list of government schools with him. He would lure the minors claiming their father had sent him to give them clothes and articles. He would then take his victims to isolated corners where he tried to rape them.

If the children resisted, he would let them off. He also blackmailed his victims into returning to him time and again.

“We were able to nab Rastogi after two schoolkids were lured by Rastogi on the promise of new clothes to a secluded area. The schoolchildren raised an alarm and managed to flee. We were told by the accused that he managed to rape only 20 per cent of the total number of victims he attacked,” Bishnoi added.

Following his arrest, Delhi Police has set up a special investigations team to look for other victims as they suspect that most of the crimes committed by Rastogi went unreported.

The accused has now been sent for the 14-day judicial custody.