Police in Bareilly have arrested a suspected killer involved in a series of murders targeting middle-aged women in the district during the past year, officials said on Friday.

Kuldeep Kumar has confessed to killing six women, according to the police.

Kumar was apprehended with the help of sketches and CCTV camera footage, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Anurag Arya said.

The arrest followed an intensive investigation involving the review of CCTV camera footage, deployment of decoys and analysis of mobile data, Arya said.

Incidents of strangulation of six middle-aged women in forest at isolated/deserted places, mainly in the Shahi and Sheeshgarh areas, had come to light in 2023 and 2024. Murder cases were registered in connection with these incidents at Shahi and Sheeshgarh police stations, he told reporters.

On Thursday, Kuldeep, aged about 35 years, was identified and arrested by a team from Shahi police station from near the banks of the Mathiya with the help of a tip and previously prepared sketches and videos, the SSP said.

The accused admitted to committing all these sensational murders, the district police chief said.

Initially, the police had said nine women were killed in the Shahi-Sheeshgarh area since last year and suspected that the murders were perpetrated by the same person who strangulated the victims.

A year on, the Bareilly police issued sketches of suspects on the basis of witness descriptions.

The latest victim, Anita Devi from Haujpur village, was found with strangulation marks on July 2. The first victim was Kusma from Khajuria village who was killed almost a year ago on July 22.

The lack of leads prompted Inspector General of Police (Bareilly Range) Rakesh Singh to take direct command of the investigation.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.