The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Man claims to have killed 21 people

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Saturday, Jan 19, 2008
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Man claims to have killed 21 people

Staff Reporter

Police stumble upon self-acclaimed killer

— PHOTO: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

IN POLICE NET: Chandrakanth Sharma (centre), Harsha (left) and Monto Sharma.

BANGALORE: The Bangalore police have stumbled upon yet another alleged serial killer who has claimed to have murdered 21 people in Maharashtra between 1978 and 1981.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Alok Kumar said Chandrakanth S. Sharma (48), a native of Nasik, who was arrested on the charge of murdering a retired Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) engineer S.V. Raghavan on January 10 this year, has claimed he murdered 21 persons in Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik, Mumbai and other towns in Maharashtra before he migrated to Bangalore in 1985.

A police team from Bangalore has gone to Pune for investigation. “We are in touch with senior police officials in Maharashtra to ascertain the claims made by Sharma and confirm whether the people whom he has claimed to have murdered were reported missing. He would be subjected to polygraph test after obtaining court permission,” Mr. Kumar said.

During interrogation, Mr. Kumar said, Sharma claimed that in some cases he had thrown the bodies of the victims into the sea and had managed to hush up a few other murders by bribing the police, citing the motive to be mostly for financial gain and business rivalry.

The police have also arrested Sharma’s wife, Harsha (43), and son, Monto Sharma (21), who had allegedly connived with him in murdering Raghavan (62), a resident of Nanjamba Agrahara in Chamarajpet.

Mr. Raghavan had rented his house at HBR Layout to Sharma. As Sharma had not paid the rent for nine months, Mr. Raghavan went there on January 10 to collect the rent. Sharma, his wife and son smothered Mr. Raghavan with a pillow, strangled him and also stabbed him in the abdomen, the police said.

Later, they took the body in a car, dumped it at a culvert on National Highway 7 near Sooligere in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, doused it with petrol and set it on fire. On the basis of an identity card found near the body, the Krishnagiri police contacted Mr. Raghavan’s family members on January 11 and informed them about the murder.

The police said Sharma had murdered his landlord with the intention of usurping the property. He had created a fake sale deed stating that Mr. Raghavan and his wife, Geethamani, had sold the house to him for Rs. 1.5 crore after forging the couple’s signatures.

Sharma had also created fake documents for property in Suddaguntepalya and Bommasandra in the city and Bangarpet in Kolar district and cheated the owners of Rs. 15 crore, the police said.

Sharma has claimed he has committed four murders at Pune’s Hotel Amarapali alone. While he fatally stabbed some victims, he smothered others using chloroform. He has also claimed he had shot dead Ibrahim of Dubai, a gold smuggler, following a business dispute, the police said.

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