The Hindu : Front Page : Man held for four murders

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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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Man held for four murders

Staff Reporter

All the victims were killed on full moon nights, say the police

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

In police net: Bangalore Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao (left) speaking to the members of the police team which arrested the accused, Girish Babu, in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: The Kalasipalya police have arrested a 25-year-old man who has been accused of murdering four persons in the past few months and robbing them of Rs. 620 to buy ganja (marijuana).

According to the police Girish Babu murdered the four men on full moon nights. While three were done to death in Kumbaragundi (Potters’ Colony) in Kalasipalya, the fourth was killed at the nearby Silver Jubilee Park. When he was arrested, Girish readily admitted that he had killed the four, the police said.

During interrogation, Girish said, “As the full moon nears, I feel like battering someone to death,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Chickpet subdivision) K.K. Venkataswamy said on Saturday.

Girish is a loner and regularly watches horror movies on television. He claims that he is provoked to kill people after watching such movies, according to the police.

Girish, a school dropout, is the son of an Excise Department guard and resides in Kumbaragundi. As the family had gone through an ordeal because of his strange behaviour, his parents provided him with an independent room next to their house, the police said.

Besides killing four persons, Girish smashed the head of a man with a boulder on July 29. The man is battling for life at Victoria Hospital. Girish befriended the man at a restaurant, took him to Kumbaragundi and smashed his head with the intention of robbing him of cash, the police said.

Girish’s first victim was Kashappa, 40, a watchman from Gulbarga. On July 11, 2006, he is alleged to have smashed Kashappa’s head with a boulder while he was sleeping at a construction site in Kumbargundi and robbed him of Rs.200.

On October 10, 2006, Girish strangled another watchman, Dandapani, 50, with a wire at a building under construction in Kumbargundi and took away Rs. 250. His third victim was driver Dinesh of Marathahalli. While Dinesh was sleeping on a bench in Silver Jubilee Park on May 31, 2007, Girish punched him on the neck in “Bruce Lee style” and snatched Rs. 20. In the latest incident, he bludgeoned labourer Nawab Jan, 55, while he was sleeping at Bamboo Bazaar on July 29 and robbed him of Rs. 150, the police said.

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