Serial killing is one of the most heinous crimes in the world. Although it has been much popularised through recent television series, it still remains as one of the most condemnable crimes. India has had its fair share of serial killers as well. Here are a few of them.
5. Surinder Koli
Surinder Koli has been linked with a total of 16 murders called as Noida serial murders. However, only four of them have actually been solved. The other 12 murders are still unsolved, and are pending trial.
The murders were committed in the house of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, where young girls were killed in 2005 and 2006.
Koli later confessed to killing six of the children, as well as a 20-year-old girl named Payal. He also confessed to raping them.
4. Raman Raghav
Raman Raghav (1929-1995) was a psychopathic serial killer, who was at the peak of his 'trade' in the mid 1960s, in Mumbai. Raghav had admitted to killing 23 people in 1966, along the tracks of the Central Railways. He mainly killed pavement dwellers and beggars. His victims were generally found bludgeoned to death. He was also imprisoned earlier for raping his sister and killing her, with several stab-wounds.
Raghav was sentenced to death by the court. However, after being found mentally ill by a team of doctors, the court reduced his sentence to life imprisonment.
3. Auto Shankar
Shankar and his accomplices, Eldin and Shivaji were convicted for the murder of six teenage girls over the period of two years, from 1988 to 1989, in Chennai. Shankar himself was linked to nine murders. He supposedly killed his victims and buried or burned them inside homes. He was named Auto Shankar, because he was an autorickshaw driver by profession.
He confessed to the murders after being arrested, and also said that before killing them, a number of his victims were sent to certain politicians, who raped them. Shankar and both his associates were tried for multiple homicides, and found guilty. They were sentenced to death.
2. Charles Sobhraj
Sobhraj is one of the most cunning serial killers India has ever seen. Born to a Vietnamese mother and a Sindhi father, Sobhraj has been the subject of much contemplation into the human psyche, books, debates and films.
He seems to have enjoyed all this attention too, being dubbed as "the Bikini Killer" and "the Serpent." He had allegedly committed 12 murders and was imprisoned in India from 1976 to 1997. Even in prison, he managed to live a life of ease. He went away to France after he was released from prison.
However, being supremely confident of his own intelligence, and extremely arrogant, he went to Nepal, in 2010, a country where he was still a wanted man. He was subsequently arrested, and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Nepal.
1. Thug Behram
Thug Behram operated during the British rule in India, between the years 1790 to 184. During this period of time, he killed 931 people.
Behram had a unique technique of killing his victims. He had a large medallion sewn to a handkerchief, which he used to wear around his waist. He could skillfully throw this handkerchief in such a way that the medallion would hit the Adam's apple of his victim, helping him to add pressure to their throat, as he strangled them. Behran was executed in 1840 for the murder of over 900 people.
