FDNY Fire Marshals Arrest Man for Arson and Link Him to Decade Old Rape Case

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FDNY fire marshals are expert investigators, and they proved it while probing a recent arson case.

Members of the Auto Fraud Squad arrested Rajeev Kumar for arson on Aug. 20, 2009, in connection with a vehicle fire that occurred on July 21, 2009. The vehicle - a Lincoln Navigator - was registered to Mr. Kumar's wife.

At the time of the fire, marshals recovered DNA evidence at the arson scene and waited a few weeks for it to be processed. In the meantime, they interviewed Mr. Kumar and his wife. He denied any involvement with the vehicle fire, and signed a statement implicating his wife.

But marshals knew he was responsible for the fire, so they took the statement to his wife, who told them to look at Mr. Kumar's arms. While in questioning, fire marshals asked Mr. Kumar to roll up his sleeves, and they saw evidence he burned himself while starting the fire. Mr. Kumar knew he had been caught and eventually made a full confession.

A few weeks later, police detectives from the NYPD Special Victims Unit called the marshals and said the DNA recovered from the vehicle matched unidentified DNA recovered from a rape victim in 2000.

Mr. Kumar was convicted of the felony in June 2010. The Queens District Attorney's office coordinated a plea deal with three conditions: five years probation, $39,000 in restitution to the vehicle leasing agent and produce a DNA swab for filing with the felony conviction.

In July, when his DNA sample was compared to that recovered from the vehicle arson and the rape, Mr. Kumar was a match.

He was arrested by the NYPD and indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney in August.

Republished with permission from the FDNY.  The original article can be viewed here.


Author:Emily Rahimi - Public Information Officer - FDNY