BHOPAL: It’s a city’s worst nightmare. Residents of Sagar are in panic mode as a serial killer is on the prowl, targeting sleeping security guards. He smashes their heads with a hammer, stones or the wooden handle of a spade, and sometimes leaves a macabre calling card.
Four cases with identical patterns have been reported so far, with three confirmed kills, including two in the last 48 hours. The fourth victim is fighting for life with a fractured skull. Already, the head-smasher is being dubbed ‘MP’s Stoneman’.
Officially, police deny that a serial killer is on the hunt, but acknowledge the similarities in the attacks. Investigators are now going though cold case files to see if any of them meet the pattern.
DGP Sudhir Saxena told TOI that he is looking into the matter. A team has been set up to track down the killer. Armed undercover cops are deployed in strategic spots.
If this turns out to be a serial killing, it would be the second in Madhya Pradesh after Aadesh Khamra, who targeted truck drivers. His kill count of 34 makes him the worst serial killer in the country. A family man, he escaped detection for over a decade. He would smile at you on the street, step out to help a neighbour in the dead of night, and murder someone the very next day without batting an eyelid. He was caught in 2018.
In Sagar, the seemingly random cases were linked when the mobile phone of the second victim was found at the third murder scene in separate locations. Police have named the three murdered guards as Uttam Rajak, Kalyan Lodhi and Shamburam Dubey, aged 50 to 60 years.
The fourth victim, Mangal Ahirwar, was attacked on Tuesday night. He has been referred to Bhopal with grievous skull injuries. Ahirwar was targeted while on duty near Moti Nagar area of Sagar on Tuesday night. He survived because he woke up.
Officers are awaiting his recovery to get some clues about the mysterious killer already being dubbed the ‘Stoneman’. He survived because he had woken up just before the blow fell. Sagar SP Tarun Nayak said Ahirwar is stable. “I spoke with him yesterday. The only thing he could recall was that the man was in a white shirt and black trousers,” he said. Lodhi and Dubey were murdered in Cantonment and Civil Lines police station areas on back-to-back nights of Sunday and Monday, triggering panic and protests in the city.
In every case, the predator struck in the dead of the night, picking his victims randomly from sleeping guards. The killings started in May this year, when Uttam Rajak, 58, who worked as a watchman at an overbridge construction site on MakroniaBanda Road was found murdered. A resident of Pipariya Karkat, 15km from Sagar, he would travel to the city daily for his night shift. He was bludgeoned to death in his sleep. The killer kept a shoe on his battered face.
Grisly though it was, police handled it as a ‘routine case’ because the ominous connections hadn’t emerged. On Tuesday morning, locals found Dubey, 60, a security guard at Sagar’s Arts and Commerce College, murdered near the canteen. He, too, was killed in his sleep. The forensic team found a bloodied stone near his body. This murder sparked panic and anger. Residents placed his body on the street and staged a roadblock, demanding immediate arrest of the killer and capital punishment.
Police found a mobile phone near Dubey’s body. The SIM card was missing but a quick check revealed it belonged to 57-year-old Lodhi, another security guard who had been hammered to death the previous night at a factory in Bhainsa. The dots connected in a chilling fashion. The triple murder led a closeddoor meeting at Sagar police headquarters on Wednesday where a special team was set up to go into every detail of the three attacks. Officers are reviewing the security in areas where the murders took place and have deployed plainclothes personnel.
Police say there’s no ‘psycho’ killer behind the murders, as feared by people. SP Tarun Nayas said it isn’t clear if the May incident is correlated. “We are trying our best to get the accused,” he said.
Watch Madhya Pradesh: ‘Serial-killer’ on prowl smashing heads of ‘sleeping’ guards in Sagar
Four cases with identical patterns have been reported so far, with three confirmed kills, including two in the last 48 hours. The fourth victim is fighting for life with a fractured skull. Already, the head-smasher is being dubbed ‘MP’s Stoneman’.
Officially, police deny that a serial killer is on the hunt, but acknowledge the similarities in the attacks. Investigators are now going though cold case files to see if any of them meet the pattern.
DGP Sudhir Saxena told TOI that he is looking into the matter. A team has been set up to track down the killer. Armed undercover cops are deployed in strategic spots.
If this turns out to be a serial killing, it would be the second in Madhya Pradesh after Aadesh Khamra, who targeted truck drivers. His kill count of 34 makes him the worst serial killer in the country. A family man, he escaped detection for over a decade. He would smile at you on the street, step out to help a neighbour in the dead of night, and murder someone the very next day without batting an eyelid. He was caught in 2018.
In Sagar, the seemingly random cases were linked when the mobile phone of the second victim was found at the third murder scene in separate locations. Police have named the three murdered guards as Uttam Rajak, Kalyan Lodhi and Shamburam Dubey, aged 50 to 60 years.
The fourth victim, Mangal Ahirwar, was attacked on Tuesday night. He has been referred to Bhopal with grievous skull injuries. Ahirwar was targeted while on duty near Moti Nagar area of Sagar on Tuesday night. He survived because he woke up.
Officers are awaiting his recovery to get some clues about the mysterious killer already being dubbed the ‘Stoneman’. He survived because he had woken up just before the blow fell. Sagar SP Tarun Nayak said Ahirwar is stable. “I spoke with him yesterday. The only thing he could recall was that the man was in a white shirt and black trousers,” he said. Lodhi and Dubey were murdered in Cantonment and Civil Lines police station areas on back-to-back nights of Sunday and Monday, triggering panic and protests in the city.
In every case, the predator struck in the dead of the night, picking his victims randomly from sleeping guards. The killings started in May this year, when Uttam Rajak, 58, who worked as a watchman at an overbridge construction site on MakroniaBanda Road was found murdered. A resident of Pipariya Karkat, 15km from Sagar, he would travel to the city daily for his night shift. He was bludgeoned to death in his sleep. The killer kept a shoe on his battered face.
Grisly though it was, police handled it as a ‘routine case’ because the ominous connections hadn’t emerged. On Tuesday morning, locals found Dubey, 60, a security guard at Sagar’s Arts and Commerce College, murdered near the canteen. He, too, was killed in his sleep. The forensic team found a bloodied stone near his body. This murder sparked panic and anger. Residents placed his body on the street and staged a roadblock, demanding immediate arrest of the killer and capital punishment.
Police found a mobile phone near Dubey’s body. The SIM card was missing but a quick check revealed it belonged to 57-year-old Lodhi, another security guard who had been hammered to death the previous night at a factory in Bhainsa. The dots connected in a chilling fashion. The triple murder led a closeddoor meeting at Sagar police headquarters on Wednesday where a special team was set up to go into every detail of the three attacks. Officers are reviewing the security in areas where the murders took place and have deployed plainclothes personnel.
Police say there’s no ‘psycho’ killer behind the murders, as feared by people. SP Tarun Nayas said it isn’t clear if the May incident is correlated. “We are trying our best to get the accused,” he said.
Watch Madhya Pradesh: ‘Serial-killer’ on prowl smashing heads of ‘sleeping’ guards in Sagar