By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A limo driver charged with raping a graduate student in Manhattan, is now accused of conspiring to have her killed, the Daily News reported.
Rajeev Kumar, 30, was charged with rape and sodomy in August, after a DNA match linked him to a 10-year-old assault on an NYU law student. The case had gone unsolved since 2000, when the law student reported that a limo driver had picked her up outside S.O.B.’s, a nightclub in SoHo, and raped her inside the vehicle, according to a statement by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Then, in 2009, Kumar was convicted of arson, having set fire to one his limousines in an apparent attempt to collect insurance money. His DNA was uploaded into the city’s database, matching the profile from the rape kit collected nearly a decade earlier.
Now, Kumar, who is being held on Rikers Island, is accused of trying to hire an undercover police officer to kill his alleged victim in exchange for $15,000, according to the News. His inmate information page on the Department of Correction website confirmed that he is now charged with conspiracy in the first degree.
While Kumar did not know the name of the woman he is accused of raping, he did provide the undercover officer with a photo of the woman, which had been turned over to his lawyer, attorney Nelson Schmukler, according to the News.
Schmukler declined to comment on whether he had given the picture to his client, the paper said.
