Dr Death arrested: Here are some of India’s most notorious serial killers

Infamously known as Doctor Death, a notorious Ayurvedic practitioner-turned-serial killer was arrested by Delhi Police after he jumped parole last year, a senior official said on Tuesday. He would feed his victims to crocodiles.

The criminal was posing as a priest under a false identity at an ashram in Rajasthan's Dausa when he was arrested on Monday, an official said.

The official added the 67-year-old Devender Sharma was convicted in multiple murder cases.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in seven separate cases across Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, and a Gurgaon court had even sentenced him with capital punishment. Police suspect his involvement in over 50 murder cases.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam said Sharma had been serving life sentence in Tihar Jail for the brutal killings of several taxi and truck drivers between 2002 and 2004, when he jumped parole in August 2023.

Sharma has a long criminal history involving at least 27 cases of murder, kidnapping and robbery.

According to the world population review, United States has recorded the highest number of serial killers. However India too has seen its share of gruesome tales of crime and serial killers.

Here are some of the most horrifying serial killers known:

1. Auto Shankar

Gowri Shankar, known by the nickname 'Auto Shankar', began his criminal career as a smuggler. He then began smuggling illicit liquor, human trafficking, and prostitution. In 1988 within a span of six months, Auto Shankar abducted and murdered 9 teenage girls from Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai. Following his arrest, he managed to escape from Chennai Central Prison but was then later apprehended in Rourkela, Odisha. Shankar was hanged to death in Salem Prison in 1995.

2. Killer sisters

Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit kidnapped 13 children, all under the age of five, and used them as pawns for petty theft and begging. They were trained by their mother Anjana Bai. The two sisters brutally murdered the children if they created problems or refused to cooperate.

They hung a two-year old child upside down from an electric pole and in another instance they repeatedly banged a toddler's head against the wall, killing him.

Between 1990 and 1996 the mother-daughters trio were involved in committing these gruesome crime before they were arrested. Anjana Bai died in prison due to ill health while the sisters were sentenced to death.

However in December 2021 the court changed their death penalty to life imprisonment and they are currently in Yerwada jail.

3. Cyanide Mallika

India's first convicted female serial killer, K D Kempamma, infamously known as Cyanide Mallika, between 1999 and 2007, killed six women.

Targeting female devotees in temples in Bengaluru, she would persuade them to perform pujas and make them consume 'holy water' and food which contained cyanide. In 2007 she was arrested and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.

4. Thug Behram

Between the year 1790 to 1840, Thug Behram is said to have killed over 931 people. However he confessed to have only killed about 125 people. He claimed to have only been 'present at the scene' of the other murders. He was the head of the Thuggee cult which travelled across Central India, looting travellers. They would follow travelling groups and would strangle their victims using their handkerchief before robbing them. He was executed in 1840.

5. Youngest serial killer

In 2007, eight-year old Amardeep Sada was arrested for killing three toddlers. His first victim was his six-year-old cousin brother followed by his eight-month-old sister. His family did not take any action calling it a 'family matter.'

The following year, he killed his neighbour's six-month-old daughter leading to his arrest. He was kept in a children's home and was released in 2016.

6. Stoneman - the one that got away

These two serial killer who have managed to elude authorities till now. Stoneman murdered 12 people between 1985 and 1987. He would crush the heads of his victims using a heavy stone - earning him the nickname Stoneman.

His operations began in Mumbai, and after a two-year hiatus the killing with the same modus operandi began in Calcutta in 1989, killing at least 13 sleeping homeless people. However it is not known if it was the same person or a copycat killer.