The Most Notorious Serial Killer of India
Raman Raghav, India's most horrifying serial killer was rightly called the ‘Jack the Ripper’ of India
He Looked Quite Ordinary
He was like anyone in those millions of middle-class men making a living in Mumbai's busy metropolis.
Holding an umbrella to guard against the unpredictable Mumbai rains, well-groomed in a simple sort of way with hair neatly combed behind and the faint fragrance of coconut oil coming from his body, he also appeared a bit fastidious by carrying a mirror which he would look into every few minutes.
Except that he wasn’t an ordinary man. He was called ‘Raghav the Ripper’, India’s version of ‘Jack the Ripper’.
Calling Raman Raghav India’s most notorious serial killer, would be an understatement. He was the killer who singlehandedly brought a busy metropolis to its toes, casting a spell of fear and paranoia all over the city.
In just three years in the 1960s, Raman’s killing spree forced the complete shutdown of a city, with people preferring to stay indoors instead of being bludgeoned to death by him.
And his favorites were the poor people, the slum dwellers, and the pavement dwellers who slept in the open. He used a regular steel rod to break skulls and faces mercilessly.
Between 1965 and 1968, in two phases, Raman is believed to have killed at least 40 people at various locations in the city. His fear assumed such mammoth proportions that rumors started spreading that the killer possessed supernatural powers and could kill at ‘will’.
Around the same time, a young, brilliant cop Ramakant Kulkarni took over the crime branch of Mumbai Police. Raghav’s case came to him as he decided to put himself into Raghav’s shoes and search for a pattern in the killing.
His observations finally made him suspect Raman. After much legwork and surveillance, he was finally arrested by a sub-inspector from his team who recognized him from photographs and descriptions given by those who had survived his attacks.
His character has been immortalized in the 2016 Bollywood movie Raman Raghav 2.0, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the bloodthirsty serial killer.
The Story of Raman Raghav
The Mumbai police first observed the killings in 1968. A series of murders had happened in the city's western suburbs; all the murders were of slum-dwellers and the poor living in derelict hutments, isolated shanties, and pavements. All had been attacked by a ‘heavy and blunt instrument’ cracking their skulls and faces. The police knew they have a serial killer at hand.
The killer was messy as if taunting the police; there were blood spatters in the huts, beds covered with human brain matter, floors covered with blood, and even faces repeatedly disfigured into pulp. It was as if the killer was attacking in a frenzy of madness. As the killer reached his 20th victim, fear started enveloping the vibrant city.
Rumors about a serial killer with superhuman powers spread. Some said he could turn into any animal; some claimed to have seen him sleeping upside down from trees.
There were several incidents where panicky crowds started attacking ‘suspicious’ looking homeless people and beggars, mistaking them for the killer. Fear was everywhere as the city went into lockdown mode, with no one daring to step out after dark. The police were under immense pressure to find the killer fast.
Mumbai Crime Chief Ramakant Kulkarni Starts the Investigation
In that very year, Mumbai police got a new young chief of crime, Ramakant Kulkarni. The serial killer’s case came to him as he began to painstakingly examine any pattern emerging from past killings of this sort. His observations brought him to similar killings two years ago in 1965-66 in the eastern suburbs of Bombay, where 19 people had been attacked.
At that time, one homeless man named Raman Raghav had been arrested by the police for questioning. But the charges were never proved, and he is released. Ramakant was sure that Raman is the killer, and he is back again.
A 2000-strong police manhunt was launched across the city. Raman’s photo was given to every task force member who started to comb every nook and corner of the city meticulously. His photo was circulated in the press, asking the public for help and information. It was a mammoth task in a mammoth city, and chances of finding Raghav were bleak unless he makes a mistake.
And that was what he did. He carried a wet umbrella when it is not raining in South Mumbai, raising the suspicions of sub-inspector Alex Fialho who says.
“I don’t know what made me look at him. Those days I used to carry photographs of the serial killer, Raman Raghav, in my shirt pocket. While waiting for a bus, I saw this well-built man in khaki shorts and a long blue bush shirt walking in my direction. I noticed he was carrying a wet umbrella. As it had not rained in South Bombay, I asked him where he was coming from, and he replied Malad (a place in western suburbs where killings had happened). This strengthened my doubt. He was also carrying half-rimmed spectacles and a thimble that belonged to a tailor who had been found killed in Malad a couple of days ago.”
He arrested him and brought him to the police station. Raghav was finally caught on 27 August 1968.
Raman Was Caught Finally
He was a tough nut crack, and despite rigorous questioning and torture, he did not open his mouth. Then Ramakant hit upon an idea. He asked him what does he like the most.
Raghav asked for Chicken biryani, a comb, hair oil, and a mirror. All his items were given to him, and finally, after having his fill, Raghav asked.
“Now tell me, what do you want?”
He confessed his crime and gave the hiding place of his activities where the police found an iron rod covered with blood and hair, knives, a screwdriver, his ‘loot’ from the murders, a color napkin, a torch, an umbrella along with a stove.
Raghav was sentenced to be hanged, but later on, his sentence was changed to life imprisonment due to his mental condition of chronic paranoid schizophrenia. He was lodged at Yerwada Jail in Pune and died at Sasson hospital from kidney failure in 1987.
The three-member jury bench declared Raghav’s crime as ‘unparalleled and unsurpassed in the history of crime.’
Sources
· Raman Raghav: The Serial Killer Who Paralysed Bombay With Fear
· All You Need To Know About Raman Raghav, The Serial Killer Who Inspired Anurag Kashyap’s Next
· Inside the mind of Raman Raghav, Mumbai’s serial killer of the 60s
· 10 Things You Need To Know About Real Raman Raghav
· It's all about real-life psycho killer Raman Raghav