Some crimes are so barbaric that they have the effect of sending shivers down our spines. It is impossible to just glimpse through headlines and come to terms with these realities and go about one's day. Sometimes, the plot unfolds to be of such heinous nature that our instant unfiltered reaction is one of disbelief for it makes one wonder, "how could someone do such a thing?"
Last week, the national capital was shaken by the horrific murder of of a 27 year old woman, Shraddha Walkar, by her live-in boyfriend Aaftab Poonawala who not only killed her in cold blood, but chopped her corpse into 35 pieces, stored her remains in his house for months, and dumped them around the city.
As the police continues to investigate the case, the many extremes visible in this case have evoked many debates as the nation struggles to make sense of this level of brutality. But this isn't the first of such incidents. Here we recount all those bloody murders that stifled our human conscience.
Trigger Warning: This article contains descriptions of brutal crimes that may be disturbing for a section of readers.
1. Kerala: Human Sacrifice ritual
In a shocking incident last month, two women were reportedly killed as part of a human sacrifice ritual in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. The body parts of the victims were cut into pieces before being buried in two locations at Elanthoor. One of the victim's bodies was mutilated and cut into as many as 56 pieces while the other's breasts were cut off. Both were strangled to death.
The crime was reportedly carried out by Bhagaval Singh, a traditional massage therapist, and his wife Laila, who had been persuaded to carry out a human sacrifice for financial progress.
2. Karnataka: Vengeful killings
In June 2022, the Karnataka police found dumped body parts of two women near water canals, disposed of around 25 kms away from each other. The corpses’ upper torsos were missing and only the lower body parts were recovered. After weeks of tracing the family of a missing woman from Chamrajnagar, the police were able to ascertain one of the victim’s identity. Using her phone records, the perpetrators were tracked down.
35-year-old T Siddalingappa and his girlfriend Chandrakala admitted to have killed three women and revealed that their target list had five more women who allegedly had pushed Chandrakala toward prostitution.
3. Bihar: World’s Youngest serial killer
Amarjeet Sada became a household name for all the wrong reasons in early 2000s after the eight year old boy was arrested in 2007 for killing three toddlers. His first two victims were his six-year-old cousin brother and eight-month-old infant sister, wherein the family refrained from taking any action regarding the gruesome murders a ‘family matter.’
The following year, Sada killed his neighbour’s six-month-old daughter. He was arrested by the police soon after and lodged in a children’s home, from where he walked free in 2016. The minor was diagnosed as a sadistic personality and reportedly showed no remorse for his cold blooded deeds during interrogations.
4. Delhi: The infamous Butcher
In July 2022, Chandrakhant Jha became the subject of a Netflix documentary Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi for his notorious spree of serial killings between 1998 and 2007. Jha, a migrant labourer from Bihar, allegedly killed around 20 migrant workers in Delhi, sliced their bodies into pieces, stuffed them into baskets and dumped the severed bodies of victims outside Tihar jail for years. At present, he is behind the bars and serving a life sentence.
5. Maharashtra: Killer sisters; First women to be on death row
Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit along with their mother, Anjana Bai, kidnapped 13 children under five years of age and used them as pawns for petty thievery and begging. When the children created problems or refused to cooperate, they were brutally murdered and their corpses disposed of. For instance, a two-year-old child was hung upside down from an electric pole, while another toddler’s head was violently banged against the wall till he died.
This six-year-long deadly saga between 1990 and 1996 ultimately led to their arrest. Anjana Bai died in prison due to poor health, while the sisters were sentenced to death.
In December 2021, however, the court commuted their death penalty to life imprisonment and they are currently lodged in Yerwada jail.
6. Karnataka: ‘Cyanide Mallika’: India’s first convicted female serial killer
K D Kempamma, infamously referred to as ‘Cyanide Mallika’ killed six women between 1999 and 2007. She targeted female devotees in temples in Bengaluru, persuading them to perform pujas and in the process would then ask them to drink 'holy water' and food spiked with cyanide. She was arrested and tried for poisoning and murdering the victims in 2007 and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.
7. Delhi NCR: Paedophilia and trafficking
Mohinder Singh Pandher, a wealthy businessman from Noida, teamed up with his domestic help Surindher Koli to run a two year long kidnapping and trafficking racket in 2005-2006 They abducted 16 children from Nithari village and were accused of organ trafficking, rape, paedophilia, and even cannibalism. The duo were sentenced to death in 2017.
8. Delhi: Toxic masculine rage
In what was described as “Tandoor murder,” a man killed his wife in perhaps the most barbaric manner possible. Sushil Sharma, an MLA, shot his wife Naina Sahni on July 2, 1995 due to piled up jealousy and insecurity over her equation with a colleague. After murdering his wife, Sushil went on to try and burn her body in a tandoor (clay oven) at a local eatery. Initially given death penalty, which was later commuted to life imprisonment; Sharma walked out of jail as a free man in 2018, after spending 29 years in prison.
9. Madhya Pradesh: Killing to ‘Save’?
Aadesh Khamra, a truck driver, mercilessly killed 34 fellow drivers and in his confession, went on to argue that he killed people to “save them the suffering of having to stay away from home.” Khamra was absconding for years and was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in 2018.
10. Maharashtra: The 'Psycho Raman'
Raman Raghav, also known as 'Pyscho Raman' terrorized Mumbai's slum dwellers in the 1960s. Using a baton to thrash and kill his victims, he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. He confessed to murdering 23 people but his statement remained highly questionable given the fact that he was mentally unstable. He died of kidney failure in 1995.
