New Delhi, November 21: The Gurugram police on Wednesday said the 20-year-old jobless man arrested for murder and rape of a toddler in the city has confessed to raping and killing at least nine girls over the past two years. The accused, Sunil Kumar, targetted girls aged between three and seven in New Delhi and three other cities. He was arrested on Monday.

The police said Kumar told them that he used to break legs of the victims with bricks as it would arouse him and then attempt rape before killing them. Interrogators also found that the first of his known victims was a four-year-old girl whom he allegedly kidnapped from a temple in Gurugram in 2016. Cops had found her mutilated body in the bushes behind Omaxe Mall on Sohna Road.

“He used to first break the legs of the victims before attempting rape. Then he would murder them," said Subhash Boken, an assistant sub-inspector and public relations officer with Gurugram police. The police have found his confirmed links to three cases of dead children, and are investigating the rest, which includes four cases in Delhi, three in Gurugram, and one each in Jhansi and Gwalior.

Kumar was arrested from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. He committed his last crime in Gurugram while visiting his sister in the same slum area where the victim lived. "He slept anywhere he could and ate at bhandaras, but always had an eye out on unaccompanied children. He told us all that he wanted was tasty food at bhandaras and young girls to satisfy his lust," a police officer was quoted as saying.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 21, 2018 10:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).