When we mention the word ‘serial killer’ we usually think of the West and names like Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Kemper, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson pop up making it seem like the western world has the hegemony over serial killers.
Wrong! India, as it turns out, has its own dark list when it comes to desi demons.
India has produced the world’s youngest serial killer, Amardeep Sada, aged seven. Thug Behram, a thuggee from the 1800s continues to be the Gold medallist and record holder with the most number of victims - a staggering 937. We have had serial killers who specialised in killing children — Darbara Singh in Punjab, and Anjanabai Gavit with her two daughters Seema Gavit and Renuka Shinde in Maharashtra. For M/s Mohan, Jolly and Mallika — the three serial killers who employed cyanide as their modus operandi — now have the dubious honour of their ‘good name’ being replaced with the chemical.
And India has also had two serial killers who got away — the Stoneman and the Beerman. Both monikers were given by the media; the latter was christened Beerman because empty beer cans were found next to the corpses, which led to the assumption that the killer liked his lager. What was oblivious to the media was that homeless people who were the victims used empty beer cans to store water.
Last week, India unearthed one more serial killer. What do we know so far? Nine women killed across 13 months triggered an investigation that has now led to the discovery of Bareilly’s own resident serial killer — Kuldeep Kumar Gangwar. Uttar Pradesh is not a stranger to serial killers, having been home to Raja ‘brain-eater & skull-keeper’ Kolander previously.
Gangwar, it seems, also had a penchant for collecting trophies like his predecessor and other serial killers. Lipsticks and bindis used by the victims, along with their ID cards were found on him. Much like the list of victims that Cyanide Mohan, the school-teacher-turned-serial killer kept in his little diary.
Trophy collectors
But why do these killers treasure these ‘trophies’ from their kills, even though they could be a giveaway nailing them to the crime? The souvenir is not merely a keepsake, but often a mark of conquest, power, and a sentimental reminder as it embodies the memory of the entire crime, including the sexual assault and murder — portable “pensieves” of sorts (sorry, JKR) which the killer can look at and relive the adrenaline rush.
In the USA, there was Dahmer who chopped bodies, clicked photographs of the limbs, and even had sex with the corpses. In India, Chandrakant Jha aka The Butcher of Delhi, not only clicked photographs of his helplessly tied-up victims but also stuffed their dismembered parts in a bag and left it outside the gates of Tihar Jail, with a letter to Delhi Police, abusing and challenging them to catch him. While some keep mementos, others like Raman Raghav who was a scavenger took anything he could find on or near the victim – which included fountain pens, mangalsutra, a tin of dalda, a bottle of kerosene, an umbrella and even a box of matches.
No one reason for what makes killers repeat their routine
So, what triggers serial killers to do what they do? In the West, psychiatrists say that it is mostly the corollary of serial killers being insane, schizophrenic, and having endured traumatic childhood or sexual abuse, and the troika of the id, the ego and the super-ego manipulating the killer’s choices. While many like to play God; feel the power to take someone’s life as Ted Bundy said: “You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!”
While writing The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers, I found to my amazement, that most serial killers here did not suffer an abusive childhood. They just needed to quench their greed for wealth and sex.
KD Kempamma aka Cyanide Mallika was poor and she wanted to figure out a quick-get-rich scheme in 2007 when 37% of Indians were living below the poverty line, and every day was a hustle for survival. So, she did what she had to get rich: She killed. Cyanide Mohan, an amoral school teacher, on the other hand, liked women and wanted to get rich too.
In the 1990s, Anjanabai a pickpocket expert, taught the trade to her two daughters Seema and Renuka. When they got caught, they decided to use infants as decoys; after all, ‘how can the mother of a child be a criminal?’ When that argument failed with the enraged public, the women would throw the infants down on the road, smashing their skulls and then blaming the public for pushing and shoving them. The shocked public would dissipate. And here’s the twist – the infants were actually kidnapped victims. The mother-daughter trio would do anything to get their hands on the stash.
In the case of Darbara Singh, the rage that fuelled his motivation to kill was deeply personal. He hated immigrant children because a minor immigrant girl at a construction site had alerted the public when Singh had tried to molest her. He was sent to jail where he projected himself to be innocent, forgot about his own crime, and vowed to kill only children of immigrants. So, he sodomised and slaughtered 17 children, luring them with treats.
Similarly, Chandrakant Jha was arrested by the cops on allegedly false charges and sent to prison. Jha, like Singh, sat in jail and developed a hatred towards Delhi police and the system, vowing to make the lives of the cops miserable. He did that quite successfully but in the bargain 18 people were murdered.
Raman Raghav was a married man except before he could consummate the marriage, he was arrested for theft and packed off to jail. Meanwhile, his wife found a lover. When Raghav returned from jail, family elders found him another woman except that she was a divorced woman with a child. Raghav was livid that he was being given another man’s “reject”. And, so, Raghav never trusted women and went on to kill 41.
Raghav said he was commanded to kill by a voice in his head – which he called “duniya wireless.” These ‘wireless messages’ in his head, which he referred to as kanoon, came as buzzing commands. So, his motive truly stood out. So does that of Amardeep Sada, the youngest serial killer. Himself a child, Sada took the life of three infants for no reason. Doctors who examined him alluded to a ‘chemical imbalance’ in his brain. Sada felt no remorse as he did not even know the emotion.
Raghav and Sada stand out for being mentally disturbed and perhaps schizophrenic in India’s list of serial killers.
Bareilly’s butcher
Back to the current case in Bareilly. Preliminary reports indicate that Gangwar had a difficult childhood, which uncannily resembles the kind of childhood that Jeffrey Dahmer had. Gangwar’s father reportedly remarried while his mother was alive, leading to domestic violence that deeply affected Gangwar.
In Dahmer’s case, his mother Joyce suffered from depression and even attempted suicide. There were frequent quarrels between Joyce and his father Lionel, leading to a divorce. Somewhere in his head, Jeffrey blamed his biological mother for the collapse of the family structure.
Similarly, Gangwar developed hate and anger for his stepmother and other women. Additionally, there’s a similarity between Raghav and Gangwar. Raghav distrusted and hated women but craved sex. Similarly, Gangwar hated women but made sexual advances towards them. When denied or met with resistance, both killers claimed the lives of the women.
The last time I counted, 36 serial killers have been listed in India over the years. They remain as symbols of evil but also a source of morbid fascination and interest.
As the US serial killer Bundy said: “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.”
Anirban Bhattacharyya is the author of multiple books including “The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers” and the creator and producer of Savdhaan India. The views expressed are personal
