The Hindu : New Delhi News : Revelations by accused in Noida killings shock nation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 24, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Revelations by accused in Noida killings shock nation

Very few instances of necrophilia and necrophagia, have been reported worldwide, reports Devesh K. Pandey

The Central Bureau of Investigation's revelation that Surender Koli, main accused in the Nithari serial killings, suffers from necrophilia (erotic attraction or urge to make sexual contact with corpses) and necrophagia (feeding on dead bodies) has left the entire nation shocked.

Mental health experts say very few instances of necrophilia and necrophagia, which are variants of paraphilia (act of sexual perversion), have been reported worldwide. While investigating the Nithari killings, the CBI officials came across just about half-a-dozen cases of serial killings that were similar to the ones reported in neighbouring Noida.

According to studies, necrophilic behaviours range from fantasies to committing murders. In Surender's case too, he allegedly told psychologists that he had been having necrophilic fantasies since adolescence. But no one was able to detect from his behaviour that he had such dangerous tendencies.

According to psychiatrist Samir Parekh of Max Healthcare, this was because people with such deviant behaviours carry out their fantasies and execute their plans in a very secretive manner.

In some cases reported abroad, necrophilic persons were found working in mortuaries or doing jobs where they had easy access to dead bodies. As it allegedly happened with Surender, necrophilics commit murders just because they need dead bodies to fulfil their fantasies.

According to psychologists, such cases are rarely reported, partly because the person suffering from such a disorder does not admit to it until confronted by experts having information about his past. Surender also never got caught till the human remains were recovered from the drain adjoining his employer's house.

Under these circumstances, a question arises as to how a person suffering from such a dreaded disorder can be identified.

Psychologists say that those who are alert can recognise people with tendencies of paraphilias like exhibitionism, fetishism, paedophilia and voyeurism.

According to Rajat Mitra of Swanchetan Society for Mental Health, persons with more serious pathological behaviours including necrophilia can indicate their deviance through their idiosyncratic, secretive and bizarre lifestyle that may be noticeable to those in close contact with them.

"It then becomes the duty of those close to the person suffering from such a disorder to immediately inform the enforcement agencies about it," says Dr. Mitra.

The CBI officials and the experts involved in the investigations believe that had the local police been a little more alert, several of the murders committed allegedly by Surender could have been prevented. When area residents complained about skeletal remains being found near the house of Surender's employer, the police brushed it aside saying they were animal remains. The complaints of missing children were also not taken seriously.

Now that the mystery behind the Nithari killings has been unravelled, the police across the country should take lessons from the mistakes committed by their Noida counterparts. A research centre with the specific purpose of studying such crimes should also be set up.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi