Acquitted for 2018 child murder, Gujarat man re-arrested for senior woman's rape-killing

Months after the Gujarat High Court acquitted Ramesh Vaidhukiya of the 2018 rape-murder of a three-year-old girl—a case that had previously resulted in a death sentence—authorities arrested him again on suspicion of raping and killing a 76-year-old woman whose remains were discovered near the Mogal Mataji temple on the banks of Aji Dam along the Rajkot-Bhavnagar highway. The victim, a regular beggar at Sat Hanuman temple, was reported missing by her grandson on August 19, prompting a missing-person filing the next day.

CCTV footage from the route between Sat Hanuman temple and Aji Dam captured Vaidhukiya picking up the woman in his rickshaw, taking her to several locations, assaulting her with a stick, raping her, and later beating her to death before wrapping the body in cloth and discarding it near the dam. Police identified him after reviewing footage spanning a 13-kilometre corridor. The high court’s earlier acquittal cited insufficient circumstantial evidence, lack of CCTV support, and flaws in DNA and reconstruction records.