It’s almost as if this is a memory Bombaywallahs have repressed subconsciously.
It has been almost 50 years since psychopathic serial killer Raman Raghav crept out of the jungles of suburban Bombay at night and killed to his heart’s content. A thin, scrawny, 40-year-old man single-handedly terrorised the upwardly-mobile city of dreams in the late 60s, by murdering over 40 people in the dead of the night.
Half a century later, Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap’s Raman Raghav 2.0, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the bloodthirsty serial killer, is set to release on 24 June.
Also Known As India’s Very Own Jack The Ripper
In 1968, the Mumbai Police noticed a series of murders in the northern suburbs of the city; it didn’t take long to realise that a serial killer was at large. The pattern was everywhere. Slum-dwellers and the poor in derelict hutments, isolated shanties, and pavements, were killed by having their skulls bashed in with a “hard and blunt instrument.”
A series of similar murders had taken place in 1965-66 in the eastern suburbs of Bombay, where 19 people had been attacked. Nine succumbed to their injuries. A suspicious-looking man lurking in the area was picked up for questioning. Once Raman Raghav’s criminal records were dug into, they showed charges of robbery and murder. The murder charge was never proved.
So, when the young, brilliant cop Ramakant Kulkarni took over as the Head of the Crime Branch, he decided to have a closer look at Raghav’s old files and think like the criminal.
He applied ‘Environment Criminology’ under which the ‘geometry of crime’ theory states that the crime occurs at a safe distance from the perpetrator’s dwelling, and at the same time not too far away from a familiar area. A 2000-strong police manhunt was launched across the city, with special focus around the Malad-Goregaon-Jogeshwari area. His fingerprints were matched to those found near recent crime scenes and a distant acquaintance confirmed that Raghav had indeed returned.
Combing through a city like Bombay for a homeless man, who looks like any other, was a daunting task. But the hysteria that had gripped Bombay residents was too urgent. Rumours about a serial killer with superhuman powers spread. Some said he could turn into any animal he wanted, some claimed to have seen him sleeping in a tree in Aarey Colony. Soon, Raghav was nabbed by former police offer Alex Fialho in Bhendi Bazaar.
Those days I used to carry photographs of the serial killer, Raman Raghav, in my shirt pocket. As I was 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 Chincholi (Malad). This strengthened my doubt. He was also carrying half-rimmed spectacles and a thimble that belonged to a Malad tailor who had been found killed a couple of days ago.Alex Fialho, speaking to DNA
The Curious Arrest, and the Curiouser Confession
When Fialho’s suspicions were largely confirmed, he asked Raghav to sit in his jeep. He complied without protest. When his fingerprints were matched, he was arrested. No noise, no resistance.
He told Fialho he had no remorse; he was instructed by God to kill those people.
In his book, Kulkarni mentions that the real work had just begun. Raghav maintained a “studied silence” throughout interrogation. His ways were too random, too beyond rationality to understand what would work with him. It was Kulkarni who got him to speak.
My father really believed in understanding the psychology of both victims and accused in all his cases. So, for him, sympathy was very important. Raghav liked perfumed hair oil and chicken biryani, so when his wishes were fulfilled, he talked. My father was successful in getting him to confess by softening him up.Anita Bhogle, Daughter of Ramakant Kulkarni
“I was very young when my father was handling this case. My job was to cut all newspaper clippings of the case and collect them. My father was a household name, then. All of Bombay was extremely scared,” she continues.
One day, when asked if he wanted anything, Raghav mentioned ‘murgh’ (chicken). He then asked for more food, some hair oil, a mirror and a comb. All his requests were complied with, on Kulkarni’s orders. After eating and applying coconut oil to his body, he looked at himself in the mirror for a few minutes before looking at the police and saying, “Now tell me, what do you want?”
Raghav Leads Police on Tour of Areas of Murder
‘We want to know all about the murders,’ said a young officer. ‘Maardaar?’ he asked. ‘Well, I shall tell you all about them. Get a vehicle, an armed guard and two witnesses. The law requires that. And I shall show you the iron akada I used to commit the murders, knives and other things which I have hidden in the bushes at Aarey Colony.’An excerpt from Kulkarni’s book
And indeed, he did. He showed them an iron fulcrum jimmy hidden in the bushes, stained with blood at the tapered end. He also produced knives, a screwdriver and his ‘loot’ from the murders: a colour napkin and a torch, an umbrella, a stove etc.
He even agreed to Kulkarni’s directive to give a full and detailed confession in front of a magistrate. All it took was a dedicated super cop who understood that the key to interrogating a psychopath is dismissing the traditional, and often just going along with them.
“A few days later I saw a hut in the same area. I peeped inside and saw a woman, and a child. She was wearing a gold necklace. I kept watch until one day I found her sleeping, with her husband beside her. I cut the string which fastened the front door and then hit the man with an iron rod until he died. The woman and child were shouting and I hit them both and killed them. I was thinking of sleeping with the woman but someone came and I ran away. The gold necklace turned out to be imitation gold.”
In the light of such confessions and more, the counsel for defence, PV Pawar, made a case for unsoundness of mind on behalf of Raghav in front of the Additional Sessions judge. His plea was that his client did not understand the nature of the act while committing it, nor that it was contrary to law. The Police Surgeon of Mumbai observed him for a month, and declared him mentally sound. Raghav was sentenced to be hanged.
The verdict was sent to the High Court for ‘confirmation’; a three-member panel of psychiatrists was set up to question and observe Raghav. The panelists confirmed he was suffering from Chronic Paranoid Schizophrenia. Some of his confessions of his beliefs to the panelists were such:
- A firm belief that other people are trying to put homosexual temptations in his way so that he may succumb and get converted to a woman.
- An unshakable belief that there are three governments in the country - the Akbar Government, the British Government, and the Congress Government and that these Governments are trying to persecute him and put temptations before him.
Having been declared incurably mentally ill, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. He was lodged at Yerwada Jail in Pune, and died at Sasson hospital from kidney failure in 1987.
“When the trial was going on, my father told me that Raman had told the judge that he [Kulkarni] was a very fair cop, and was just to him,” reminisces Anita.
For someone with sworn, irrational hatred towards the world of ‘KANOON’, this is a worthy testament of Kulkarni’s skill and talent.
A police officer for every madman, in the city that never sleeps.
(This article is based on events recalled by Kulkarni in his book)
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