Rikers Island inmate Rajeev Kumar tried to pay 'hit man' $15,000 to kill rape accuser, sources say

Rajeev Kumar's scheme to silence his accuser was blown open in a sting operation, sources say, and now he's facing a conspiracy rap.

Kumar, 30, raped the grad student in the back seat of his limo after offering to give her a lift home from a Manhattan nightclub, sources say.

He wasn't caught until a decade later, when he was arrested in an arson case and his DNA matched the evidence in the long-cold sex assault case.

"He thought he had gotten away with the rape all these years," a law enforcement source said. "Then he was caught and he just couldn't accept it."

Kumar told fellow Rikers inmates he would pay for someone to "get rid of his problem," a Correction Department source said.

Word of his offer made it to the Manhattan district attorney's office, which worked with the NYPD to set up an undercover operation.

A cop posing as a hit man met with Kumar, who said he would pay $15,000 for the rubout, sources said.

He said he didn't know where the rape victim lived but he knew what school she graduated from and had a photo - which alarmed investigators.