Years of twists and turns, suspicious evidence, and prominent personalities have made these murders India’s most extraordinary investigations. Here's a look at India's most notorious murder cases
1. Sheena Bora
This week, Indrani Mukerjea was arrested for the murder of
her sister Sheena Bora in 2012. A bizarre twist to the murder mystery - Sheena
was the daughter, and not the sister of the wife of top TV honcho Peter
Mukerjea.
This case is sensational for two reasons: the people
involved and the way in which the alleged killers covered their tracks and
escaped all suspicion for three years. The case would have remained one more of
Mumbai Police's unsolved cases had an informer not tipped off the cops about
the murder that occurred three years ago. He told cops that he had information
about the murder of Sheena Bora that occurred in 2012 and could also lead them
to the murderer and the victim's body. Khar cops picked up Mukerjea's driver a
few days ago based on this information and started grilling him and he
confessed to having murdered Bora at Mukerjea's behest. He also told the cops
that he dumped Bora's body in the forests of Raigad. Mumbai cops then got in
touch with their counterparts in Raigad, who confirmed that the remains of an
unknown woman were found from the same spot. Khar police arrested the driver
and then, based on his confession, asked Mukerjea to present herself for
questioning on Tuesday. She was arrested after a three-hour grilling session.
Both of them were produced in the Bandra Metropolitan
Magistrate's court on Tuesday and cops got their custody till August 31. Both
have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 363 (kidnapping) and 201
(destroying evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.
2. Sunanda Pushkar
Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Indian diplomat and politician
Shashi Tharoor. A day after a Twitter controversy in which she accused
Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar of stalking her husband, she was found dead in
room 345 of Delhi's Leela Palace hotel. Shashi discovered her body, and assumed
she was asleep. It was only when she did not 'wake up' that he informed the
police, who recovered the body and had it send for postmortem. While initial
reports cited suicide, All India Institute of Medical Sciences doctors claimed
injury marks, followed by death of drug overdose. On January 6, 2015, Delhi
Police reported that Sunanda was murdered. Police claim Sunanda, 51, was
poisoned, and registered a murder case in January this year, without naming any
suspect. No arrests have been made in the case yet.
3. Arushi Talwar
The investigation of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar's murder,
who was found with her throat slit, presented years of twists and turns. While
the domestic help, Hemraj was initially accused, the body of their Nepalese
domestic help was also found within days. A long drawn out investigation saw
confusion over evidence, accusations of her parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar
misleading investigators, and a dramatic trial by media (and now a Bollywood
movie featuring Irrfan Khan), the court eventually ruled the parents guilty.
4. Nithari murder
case
Surinder Koli (L) was the domestic help of Moninder Singh
Pandher (R), a businessman from Noida. In 2006, they were both arrested in
connection with the discovery of skulls of missing children in the Nithari
village, on the outskirts of Noida. The case was a topic of discussion in every
household due to the huge media furor over what was really going on. There were
accusations of rape, cannibalism, pedophilia, sodomy and even organ
trafficking. As of now, Surinder Koli has been found guilty of 5 homicides and
is on death row, while Pandher awaits his fate with 11 other unsolved murders
under the same investigation.
5. Nitish Katara
Nitish Katara was a 25-year-old business executive in Delhi
who was murdered in 2002, by Vikas Yadav, the scion of influential
criminal-politician D. P. Yadav. Nitish had fallen in love with his classmate,
Bharti Yadav (Vikas' sister) at the Institute of Management Technology,
Ghaziabad. Nitish had been murdered after several threats to separate from
Bharti. His body was found beside a highway, battered to death with a hammer,
covered in diesel and set aflame, days after the couple attended a wedding.
According to testimony, Katara had been taken for a drive by Vikas and Vishal,
Bharti's brothers, and was never seen alive again. According to the trial
court's ruling, Nitish's murder was found to be an honour killing as the Yadav
family found him an unworthy suitor to Bharti.
6. Charles Sobhraj's
streak of murders
Born in Saigon, Vietnam, 'The Serpent', as the world knows
him, is probably the most popular serial killer of India. He is very well read
and extremely suave, which helped him in taking his victims (between 12-24
western tourists) into confidence before drugging and killing them. One of his
first victims was Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road right
outside the Pattaya resort he was staying at. After this, Dutch students Henk
Bintanja, and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker were invited to Thailand after
meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong. They, like so many others, were poisoned by
Sobhraj, who then nurtured them back to health in order to gain their trust.
Around the same time entered Charmayne Carrou, the girlfriend of Vitali Hakim,
in the city to investigate her boyfriend's disappearance. Fearing that he will
be found out, Charles along with his accomplice, Ajay Chowdhury, murdered the
Dutch couple. Their bodies were found strangled and burnt on 16 December 1975.
Soon after, Carrou was found drowned, wearing a similar-styled swimsuit to one
of Sobhraj's earlier victims, Teresa Knowlton. Sobhraj would later get the
nickname "The Bikini Killer."
7. Cyanide Mallika
No, she has nothing in common with Cyanide Mohan, except for
the cyanide element of course. Cyanide Mallika a.k.a K. D. Kempamma is
considered to 'India's first female serial killer'. She would choose her
victims from among female devotees near temples. Posing as a deeply pious
woman, well versed with all the religious rituals, she would befriend
well-to-do women. Once she gained the confidence of a woman, she would call her
to a temple that was far away from the would-be victim’s house. She would
advise the woman to be dressed in all her finery, including jewelry, to appease
the gods. At the temple, Mallika would pretend to perform a prayer before
telling the woman to drink holy water or eat prasad that would be laced with
cyanide. Known to have killed 6 women like this, she was given a death penalty
in 2010, which was later reduced to life imprisonment in 2012.
8. Naina Sahni
tandoor murder case
Sushil Sharma, a former Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress
president, was convicted in 2003 for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni, a
former functionary of the Delhi unit of the Mahila Congress.
The murder took place in July 1995. Sharma had been in a
live-in relationship with Naina for some time before the two got married, with
him choosing to keep the wedding under wraps. On July 2, 1995 Sharma reportedly
saw Naina on the phone as he entered the house.
She hung up, but he hit redial to find the call answered by
Naina's former classmate and Congress colleague. Enraged, he used his pistol to
kill her, then carried her body to the restaurant where he chopped it into
small pieces and tried to burn it in the tandoor.
The case went to trial later that year with the judgment in
what came to be known as the 'Tandoor Murder Case' coming in 2003 when he was
awarded the death penalty. The Supreme Court in 2013 commuted his death penalty
to life term.
9. The Tikku, Kakkar
double murder
Starlet Simran Sood often introduced her husband Palande as
her brother
The sensational murders of two Delhi residents at the hands
of a money-crazy criminal and his female accomplice are no short of a thriller.
Former gangster and prime accused Vijay Palande used his model wife Simran Sood
as a 'honeytrap' to commit the crimes for usurping properties of the victims,
police said. In April 2012, Palande along with his aides Dhananjay Shinde and
Manoj Gajkosh, murdered Delhi-based businessman Arunkumar Tikku, 67.
Palande had befriended the victim's actor son Anuj Tikku
with a motive to acquire his plush apartment in upscale in Mumbai’s upscale
Lokhandwala Complex, police had said. The trio were nabbed by the Mumbai crime
branch. Simran Sood was also arrested in connection with the abduction and
murder of Delhi-based aspiring producer Karankumar Kakkad, 28. Palande
confessed that he killed Kakkad because he suspected the latter of being an
underworld mole, who would eventually kill him.
Simran introduced Palande as her "brother" to Anuj
and Karankumar, police said.
Palande was earlier convicted of a double murder in 1998,
and again in 2002, he jumped parole in 2003, went to Bangkok for a cosmetic
surgery to change his features, and returned to Mumbai in 2005.
10- Neeraj Grover
murder
Maria Susairaj was found guilty of destroying evidence alone
It was a murder most gruesome.
The body of Mumbai-based television executive Neeraj Grover
was chopped into pieces, stuffed into three bags and set on fire in a forest.
Fourteen days after Maria Susairaj, a struggling Kannada
actress, lodged a compliant with the Malad police that her friend had gone
missing after leaving her house on May 7, 2008, it was found that she was
involved in his killing. Maria’s fiancee Emile Jerome, a naval officer, killed Neeraj,
in a fit of rage.
The reason? Jerome came to know on May 6, 2008, that Grover
had stayed at Susairaj’s flat. Suspecting that the two were having an affair,
he flew down to Mumbai from Cochin and found Grover with his fiancee. An angry
Jerome murdered Neeraj, then went to a nearby mall, purchased a chopper and
with Maria’s help disposed the body off.
Jerome and Maria both got off lightly. He has been convicted
of culpable homicide not amounting murder and she was let off saying she was
only guilty of destroying evidence.
11-The Pramod Mahajan
killing
A flamboyant Bharatiya Janata Party politician was killed in
broad daylight in his house. The story left India shell shocked.
Pramod was shot dead by his younger brother Pravin (in the
picture above) on a quiet morning in April 2006 at his Worli residence.
Pravin killed his brother, then walked calmly to a nearby
police station and said, “I am Pravin… I shot Pramod.” It was during the court
hearings that the troubled relationship came to the fore. Pramod raised me
“like a pet dog,” he had said.
Pravin was sentenced to life; he died in March 2010 of a
suspected brain haemorrhage.
12-The Rizwanur
Rehman murder-
Rizwanur Rehman was found dead near railway tracks on
September 21, 2007, weeks after he got married to Priyanka, daughter of industrialist
Ashok Todi who heads the Lux Hosiery Group.
Rizwan and Priyanka had not informed their families, as they
expected fierce opposition, particularly from Priyanka's family. On a friend's
advice, the couple wrote to commissioner of police, DC (south) and Karaya
police station informing them about the marriage and requesting police
protection. Then, Priyanka informed her father Ashok Todi over telephone about
her marriage with Rizwan. Her family, especially her father, was extremely
disappointed.
Ashok Todi tried to persuade the cops and asked them to
separate the couple. Rizwanur was forced to send his wife Priyanka to her
father's home and later wasn't allowed to talk to her. On September 21, 2007,
his body was recovered from railway track in Kolkata. The incident was brushed
aside as a case of suicide.
But Todi, his relatives and some police officers were
charged with abetment to suicide. On October 13 2008, the Supreme Court of
India stopped all proceedings in the case till the Calcutta high court decided
Ashok Todi's petition challenging CBI's chargesheet against him
13- The Jessica Lall
murder-
The murder exposes the dark side of power.
On April 29, 1999, Manu Sharma, the former son of Union
minister Venod Sharma, shot dead Jessica Lall after the 34-year-old refused to
serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina
Ramani in south Delhi’s Mehrauli.
Despite the case involving several prominent people
(including a former Minister, a politician, and and a prominent socialite),
public outrage changed how the judiciary approached the matter. Intensive media
coverage and ensuing protests lead to the Delhi High Court taking up the matter
after Manu Sharma had been pronounced innocent. After 25 days of daily hearing,
the Delhi High Court overturned the judgement, finding Manu Sharma found
guilty.
The case continued to hit the headlines long after the
murder when Sharma was acquitted by a trial court in February 2006. Following a
nationwide public outcry, the case was taken up by Delhi high court through a
fast track trial that ended in his conviction on murder charges. He has been
sentenced to life in the case.
14-The Shivani
Bhatnagar case
Former IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma was acquitted in the
case
Shivani Bhatnagar, who was working as the principal
correspondent with a leading national daily, was brutally murdered in her
Navkunj Apartment flat in East Delhi in January, 1999.
Investigations in the case sent shockwaves across the
nation. Her relationship with an influential BJP minister also surfaced.
Finally, then Inspector-General of Haryana Police, Ravi Kant
Sharma emerged as the prime accused. The mystery unravelled and curtains were
raised from a nasty and soured love affair between Sharma and Shivani. Cops
alleged that Sharma got Bhatnagar killed because he feared she would expose
their intimate relations.
Sharma surrendered to the police on September 27, 2002 after
avoiding the police for three years. The lower court on March 24, 2008,
convicted four persons including Sharma in the case. But, in 2011, the high
court acquitted Sharma.
15- The Priyadarshini
Mattoo case
Law student
Priyadarshini Mattoo was found dead on January 23, 1996 at her uncle's
residence in New Delhi.
Her senior, Santosh Kumar Singh who had been stalking and
harassing her for years, was named main accused. Later, it was revealed that
Santosh, the son of an influential IPS officer, strangulated her by wrapping an
electric wire around her neck. He smacked her face many times with a helmet
that made her face unrecognisable.
The Delhi high court had on October 30, 2006 sentenced him
to death which was later converted into life imprisonment by the Supreme Court.
16- The Shakereh
Khaleeli murder
The Shakereh Khaleeli murder case shook the Bangalore and
the nation in the 1990s. Shakereh, a descendent of the Mysore diwan Sir Mirza
Ismail, had married diplomat Akbar Mirza Khaleeli who was the Indian Ambassador
to Iran, Italy and high commissioner to Australia.
They had four daughters. She left her husband and married
Murali Manohar Mishra, a self-styled godman also known as Swami Shradhananda.
She went missing in 1991. In May 1994, the Karnataka police found Shakereh's
remains buried in the courtyard of her home.
She had been buried alive in a coffin after being drugged.
Mishra was initially sentenced to death but the Supreme Court commuted it to a
life sentence.
Read the full mystery here
17- The Syed Modi
killing
National badminton champion Syed Modi Modi was shot dead
while he was coming out of the K D Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow on July 28,
1988.
Investigations revealed that one Akhilesh Singh had
commissioned the murder even though the actual execution was done by four other
accused.
Former Union minister Sanjay Singh and Ameeta Modi, widow of
the slain badminton champion, who were also accused in the case, but were
discharged by a Lucknow court.
Singh later married Ameeta, who was later elected as the
Congress MP from Amethi.
18- Sanjay and Geeta
Chopra murders
This case left the India of 1970s numb. In August 1978,
Kuljeet Singh alias Ranga Khus and Jasbir Singh alias Billa, murdered two
teenagers, children of a senior naval officer, after subjecting them to
sadistic torture. Ranga and Billa were two hardened criminals from Mumbai who
had just been released from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail.
Geeta and Sanjay Chopra were kidnapped for ransom in New
Delhi, but after learning their father was in the navy they were killed. Geeta
was allegedly raped before being murdered, but forensic evidence could not
confirm this. The two kidnappers were sentenced to death and the execution was
carried out in 1982.
19. Amar Singh
Chamkila
A fearless Punjabi rebel who was gunned down by a gang of
motorcyclists in broad daylight.
A legend in the music industry and regarded as one of the
best stage performers Punjab ever produced, this man's death remains a mystery
to date.
In his lyrics, Amar sang about village life as he had seen
it. He would talk about extramarital affairs, alcoholism, drug abuse, anger
issues, etc. He had earned a reputation to speak the truth by his followers
while his detractors felt he was obscene.
While he was still at the apex of his career, Amar had been
the victim of numerous death threats by Khalistani militants. The reasons could
be that he was a threat to establishment, as besides his revolutionary lyrics,
he was also married to one Amarjot Kaur, who was also a co-performer and
belonged to a different caste than Chamkilas'.
When they arrived to perform together in Mehsampur, Punjab,
both were gunned down as they exited their vehicle on 8 March 1988 at
approximately 2 o'clock. A gang of motorcyclists fired several rounds at the
couple and other members of the entourage. Amarjyot was pregnant at the time
and was shot in the chest and Chamkila was killed with 4 bullets in the chest
alongside Gill Surjit and the dholki player Raja.
The blame was put on terrorists. Some believe that other
Punjabi singers had conspired against Amar as he was the most influential. A
curfew order took place when he was killed and riots between gangs broke out.
Read more here .
No arrests were ever made in this connection and the case
has never been solved.
20. Chandrashekhar
Prasad
Shot dead on March 31, 1997 by sharpshooters allegedly in
the employ of former Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian, Mohd. Shahabuddin.
Born in Siwan, Bihar into a poor household, following his
initial education in Siwan, he studied at the Sainik School in Jhumri Tilaiya,
after which he joined the Indian National Defence Academy, but soon left it
because he wanted to be a political activist. He joined Patna University before
joining JNU.
Once he joined JNU he was instrumental in setting up of
AISA, the newly formed student organization of the CPI-ML liberation. He was
elected to the JNU students union election three times in a row, as President
for two successive terms.
He was killed on 31st March, 1997 in Siwan, Bihar while
addressing a gathering.
The reason behind his brutal murder was accounted to his
immense popularity as a leader amongst people. His death generated nationwide
outrage and protests led by students. There were convictions , but the police
are yet to find who was behind the conspiracy to assassinate this future
leader.
21. Rajiv Dixit
A mysterious death of a true patriot that was followed by no
investigation or postmortem report. Cardiac arrest or slow poisoning? The
questions remain.
Rajiv Dixit was a social activist and an Indian Nationalist
who passed away on 30th November, 2010, at the age of 43.
He spoke on matters such as the evils of globalisation,
liberalisation and privatisation and equated them to modern-day colonialism .
He was a leader of the Swadeshi Movement and Azadi Bachao Andolan and advocated
decentralisation of taxes , because according to him, 80% of taxes were being
used to feed the politicians and bureaucrats and just 20% for development
purposes for the people. He also advocated farmers' rights.
He maintained very controversial opinions on subjects such
as the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. Unfortunately for him,
due to his relentless crusade against the powers that be, including governments
and MNCs, he had made many enemies.
He died on 30 November 2010 due to apparent cardiac arrest ,
while in Bhilai , Chhattisgarh, on the way to deliver a lecture as a part of
his Bharat Swabhiman Yatra.
However, no post-mortem was done after his death. His body
was blue-black in colour when he had died, indicative of poisoning. Even the
entire media was silent on his death and none reported it.
To date, we do not know what exactly happened.
22. Lal Bahadur Shastri
A man revered for his humility, and remembered for an
untimely, suspicious death in a foreign land at a time of war.
As was the case with Rajiv Dixit, Mr. Shastri also died
under suspicious circumstances, of apparent cardiac arrest. It was 2 P.M. in
Tashkent, Russia, and his death occurred the day after signing the Tashkent
Declaration . He was the first Prime Minister of India to die overseas, and
thus, a number of people had suspected foul play .
To add to this, even in case of Lal Bahadur Shastri, no
post-mortem report was made and thus theories emerged of him being murdered by
poisoning . Several RTIs have also been filed only to be rejected by the
government on the fear of straining international relations.
Much later, Gregory Crowley, a journalist, in a book titled,
"Conversations with the Crow" . claimed that CIA was responsible for
eliminating Dr. Homi Bhabha , Indian nuclear scientist whose plane crashed into
Alps, when he was going to attend a conference in Vienna as well Lal Bahadur
Shastri , who died at Tashkent summit in 1966.
Crowley said that USA was wary of India's rigid stand on
nuclear policy and then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who wanted to go
ahead with nuclear tests . He also said that the agency was worried about the
collective domination of Indo-Russia over the region.
23-Lalit Narayan Mishra, 1975:
24-Lakshmikanthan Murder Case, 1944: C. N.
Lakshmikanthan was a film journalist. He was stabbed by a group of men on
November 8, 1944, while he was returning from his friend's house. He died on
November 9, 1944 due to a secondary shock which was caused due to damage to his
kidney. Six suspects were arrested who were later acquitted as they were proved
innocent. The murder still remains a mystery
25-Vyapam Scam, since
mid -1990s: The scam refers to Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal and scams related
to the board. The investigation was handed over to CBI in the year, 2015 and
over 40 people have been found dead who were related to the scam. The case is
becoming a mystery as more people are being found dead.
This incident remains shrouded in mystery.
Inputs from GOOGLE
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