Monday, January 15, 2007

Bombay's serial killer still at large

The South Mumbai serial killer, who has snuffed out eight lives of vagabonds/drug addicts till last count, is still at large. And waiting to kill more.
But atleast we now know some of his traits. He definitely drugs and sexually abuses his victims. And likes killing them in his topohraphical arc of comfort---a particular area or stretch.
The railway overbridges between Churchgate and Marine Lines railway station are the spots where he probably loves hunting down his victims---his last four victims were targeted there.
This pattern, interestingly, is reminiscient of the city's last well-known serial killer---Raman Raghav. In 1969, he killed 9 persons with his crowbar. He would grab his victims in and around the arc over a municipal waterpipe in North Mumbai.
The police, meanwhile, now believe that a group of killers may be responsible for the recent string of roadside murders.
This theory is based on the dis-similarity in the pattern of the killings---the instruments of murder have been both blunt objects and sharp weapons.
But the theory may turn out to be wrong. Till now, deaths attributed to psychopathic killings have always been perpetrated by one individual. It is too random to find two like-minded psychopaths ganging up to line up bodies for the police to collect.
Raghav, to go back to the last such case chronicled in the city, had told the police on getting arrested that he apparently received divine instructions to kill---he was `told' that the pipeline was the boundary between evil and good, India and Pakistan.
So he killed in the `Pakistan zone' across the pipeline.
Another small nugget on his psychological make-up was that he had resisted interrogations for days robustly, but volunteered to tell all the grisly details after getting fed his choicest meal---curry chicken---and allowed to comb and oil himself.
For him, probably, the soft treatment worked instead of brute force.
What might the current serial killer believe in that fuels his drive to kill his victims?
Will it turn out to be a divine inspiration aka Raghav?
What might make him `sing' his crime-details once he gets nabbed?
He might turn out to be a mix of a typical psychopath like Raghav and a smart, weird character who does it just for the love of killing and daring the police to nab him!

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