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The murders of three security guards in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar city in a span of 72 hours have once again evoked the memories of ‘serial killer’ Raman Raghav, who terrorised the streets of Mumbai in 1960s by killing several homeless people, and other such killers.
Forensic psychologist Deepti Puranik from Mumbai told PTI that the three killings in Sagar “seem to be the work of a ‘mission oriented serial killer’ who is apparently on a mission to get rid of a specific set of people, in this case watchmen.”
While there is suspicion of the involvement of a serial killer, the MP police have said it would be too early to jump to any conclusion and they are working to nab the culprit.
Puranik said the motive in this particular case seems to be hate and the killer must have been very precise in the attacks.
The killer could have been a victim of childhood abuse, as is most common in serial killing cases, the expert said.
“The killer may have strongly felt that death is the only punishment for his victims and they have no right to live,” she said.
The three murders in Madhya Pradesh have reminded many of ‘serial killers’ like Raman Raghav, who had sent shock waves across the country in 1960s, retired assistant commissioner of police Bharat Shelke said.
He said in cases of serial killing, the important factors include identification of the victim and accused, recovery of the weapon and ascertaining the motive behind the crime.
Raghav, who was also called Psycho Raman, had confessed to at least 41 murders of homeless people on the streets of Mumbai, he said.
He was schizophrenic and had terrorised Mumbai between 1966-68, during which he bludgeoned to death poor men and women with hard and blunt objects like iron rod while they were sleeping, Shelke said.
Late assistant commissioner of police Alex Fialho, who was a sub-inspector at the Dongri police station in Mumbai in 1968, had arrested Raghav from Bhendi Bazar here, he said.
In October last year, Suresh Gauda (40) was arrested for killing two persons sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai in a span of 15 minutes.
During the investigation, it was came to light that he was arrested for a similar murder in Kurla area of Mumbai earlier.
In 2017, Mumbai had witnessed murders of five people with their heads smashed in suburban Bandra.
A 26-year-old labourer working for a catering firm was arrested in the case, a police official said.
Another serial killer, who went by the name of ‘Beer Man’, was said to be responsible for the murder of at least six people in south Mumbai between October 2006 and January 2007.
In every case, a beer can was found next to the body. A man was arrested in the case but later acquitted by a court.
In 2018, the Madhya Pradesh police had arrested ‘serial killer’ Aadesh Khamra from Raisen district for allegedly killing 34 truck drivers and cleaners in a decade.
There have been other such incidents also in the past.
In 1986, serial killer Charles Sobhraj was arrested by then Mumbai police inspector Madhukar Zende from a Goa hotel.
Sobhraj (78), also known as the ‘bikini killer’ due to the attire of several of his victims, allegedly murdered 12 people between 1975 and 1976 in various parts of South East Asia.
He is currently serving a sentence in a Nepal prison.
In October 1996, two sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were arrested by Maharashtra Police for kidnapping 13 children and killing nine of them serially between 1990 and 1996.
The Bombay High Court had later commuted their death sentence into life imprisonment.
They are currently lodged in Pune’s Yerawada prison, serving life term till their natural death.
Another serial killer M Jaishankar alias Psycho Shankar was accused of rape and murder of 20 women on highways in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka between 2008 and 2012 while working as a truck driver.
Jaishankar died in a hospital in March 2018 after he allegedly slashed his neck with a shaving blade in Bengaluru Central Prison.
Another serial killer Darbara Singh was arrested by Punjab Police in 2004 for kidnapping and murdering children of migrant labourers.
He had allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted 23 children, and 17 of them were murdered.
Besides, K D Kemapamma had also been in news some years ago after she became the first woman serial killer in the country to be convicted of killing six women between 1999 and 2007.
She was also called ‘Cyanide Mallika’.
