Mumbai: Serial killer caught after 17 years of eluding the law

The Crime Branch in Vasai arrested a 40-year-old serial killer from Bengaluru. The killer Niranjan Kumar a native of Bihar’s Saran district, had been changing his locations, identities as well and profession in different states to remain at large despite committing heinous five murders.

“The killer is a master of disguise who left behind a trail of deception and fear. He would work as a plumber, security guard, in a garage, box packaging firm, etc to maintain a low profile by changing his alias,” said a police official.

Inspector Sameer Ahirrao of Crime Branch Unit 2, Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) police, said, “Kumar first killed his step-mother and step-siblings in West Bengal in 2002 and later killed his best friend in 2008 in Vasai; ‘but he was never caught in any case.’

The Crime Branch officials have been investigating the unsolved cases registered at different police stations in the MBVV police commissionerate. “We were probing into a murder case of 2008 registered at Manikpur police station. The deceased Manoj Sah was the best friend of Kumar who killed him by banging his head against a wall, later strangled him using a shoelace and left for Surat where he remained underground by changing his identity,” said another officer privy to the investigation.

Inspector Ahirrao said, “Kumar told us that his mother died when he was too young, so his father got married to a woman who would allegedly ill-treat him. He claimed that his father would also not take care of him properly. So, he killed his step-mother, two step sisters aged six and seven years old and a step-brother who was only two years old in 2002 in the Haldia district of West Bengal.”

“Though Kumar’s father had registered a murder case at a police station in Haldia but the case remained unsolved, as the killer had left the state and absconded to Maharashtra,” Ahirrao said.

“He initially lived in Navi Mumbai before moving to Vasai, where he befriended Manoj Sah who got him a job for survival. They had been living in a chawl area in Vasai but over some dispute, Kumar killed Sah in 2008 and left Maharashtra for neighbouring state’s Surat city,” Ahirrao said.

After scanning the case files of Sah, the Crime Branch officers reached his hometown in Chhapra city of Saran district in Bihar.

“His neighbours and relatives told us that Kumar hardly visited once or twice since 2002. Though he had snapped contact with all his relatives he had got a voter ID card made in Bihar and through human intelligence network, we managed to get his mobile number,” Ahirrao said.

The investigation team retrieved the call data records (CDR) and checked his mobile tower location which was Bengaluru. After getting the technical details, another team was dispatched to Bengaluru and Kumar was nabbed after 17 years.

“Kumar was working as a plumber in Bengaluru. He changed his name to Raju, Ajay Vijay Shukla, Niranjan Kumar, Ranjan, etc to conceal his identity. We have been told that his father died in 2015. He was living with a woman, who he married in 2020,” said Ahirrao.

Kumar will be produced before the local court in Vasai to seek his police custody for further investigation.