raman raghav
US sniper attacks revives memories of Raman Raghav and ‘stone man’
MUMBAI, Oct 29/2002:
The sniper attacks in the Washington DC area in the US have revived the memories of a dreaded serial killer of this Island city, Raman Raghav and another infamous "stone man".
After Raman Raghav, who bludgeoned 42 people, mainly beggars and street urchins, to death in the late 1960s, a ‘stone-man’ killed 12 in the Sion and King Circle areas of the city between 1985-87.
Several such cases have remained a mystery as well as a matter of interest for the psychiatrists.
Leading Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Amresh Shrivastava, who runs a rehabilitation centre, ‘Prerna’, said, "they (serial killers) are nothing but mentally ill people."
"They suffer from neurological diseases and their motives are unexplained," he told UNI.
"A very distinct aspect is that their pattern of killings is similar," he said adding that they are all "paranoid psychosis maniac patients".
Dr Shrivastava said besides these, there are psychopaths who carry out such activities under the influence of drugs.
Concurring with the psychiatrist, former Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Y C Pawar said, "the serial killers probably do not know what they are doing and what harm they are causing to the society."
A senior police officer said Raman Raghav, who used to smash the heads of his victims with stones, was a schizophrenic.
Another psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, while refusing to hazard a guess on the similarities of the infamous killers in the country and the sniper attacks in the US, said such people are driven by a particular thought or ideology. "They feel killing is the best way to take revenge," he added.
Leading psychologist Dr P D Lakdawala, whose seniors have analysed the case history of Raman Raghav, said Raghav was sent to the mental asylum at Thane where he subsequenly succumbed to his illness. Dr Lakdawala said Raman Rahgav was suffering from ‘hallucinations and delusions". The serial killer had revealed that he was "following the orders of god".
"Psychopaths (like Raman Raghav or other serial killers) do not have any respect or care for the society and the value system," he added.
"They are irresponsible and aggressive as well as impulsive and they often consume drugs and alcohol," Dr Lakdawala said.
Raman Raghav was arrested in the late 1960s by Assistant Commissioner of Police Alex Fialo. The entire case was handled by Deputy Commissioner of Police Basil Kane.
A senior serving crime branch officer said most of the killings of Raman Raghav were spread in the Ghatkopar, Andheri and Jogeshwari area.
He was picked up on the basis of suspicion and later during the course of interrogation he confessed that he was a serial killer.
"He had designed a weapon on his own and named it ‘Kanpatti’ which was a heavy iron bar with a sharp protruding edge," he said.
He used to target people on the footpath as well as in the small hutments, mainly beggars and street urchins. "The panic was so much that people felt threatened to sleep outside the house," a senior serving officer said adding that the Bombay Crime branch handled the case.
At the Mazagon court, the tall-built darkish complexioned tough-looking Raman Raghav, who sported a mustache, even narrated before the judge how he killed people.
He targetted pavement dwellers sleeping along the streets as well as those sleeping on foot-over bridges.
‘Most of the time he targetted people with a huge stone and at times with the heavy iron rod," sources in the city police recall. However, officials said, he was not violent with the police after he was caught and even at the court room used to answer queries of the prosecutors and judge. Raghav’s "reasoning and answers" were not that satisfactory in view of the fact that he was a patient himself. He also could not give proper answers about his family or when he came to Bombay.
After nearly two years of trial he was sent to Thane mental asylum where he died.
Some 15 years after Raman Raghav’s terror, a series of murders committed in the Sion and King Circle suburbs, north-central Mumbai between 1985 and 1987, again shook the metropolis.
Unfortunately, ‘the stone man’, as he was called, was never caught in spite of efforts by more than a 100 policemen patrolling that area in the night.
The killer, whose modus operandi was to crush the head of his victim using a stone, to date remains untraced.
Police officials said the victims selected at random were mostly beggars. Their heads were smashed with heavy stones, some weighing as much as 30 kg.
The killings took place in the interiors of Koliwada and Sion and between Kings Circle and Sion Circle areas.
However, police officers recall, that the stone killer never attacked those who slept in groups. In most of the cases, the identity of the victims could not be ascertained in view of the fact that they were beggars.
The officers said in the investigation of some of these cases, sniffer dogs were used but they lost the scent during the trail. There were no witnesses to the killings too, so the sketches of the killer could not be prepared.
However, from the weight of the stone police surmised that the killer must have been a strong man. After 1987, though, the incidents stopped and police believe that he might have left the city.
As far as the remedial measures are concerned, psychiatrists say that sending such "mentally ill" patients to a mental asylum is the only answer.
"Treatment needs to be administered to them from childhood itself so that in future they do not become violent," a psychiatrist adds. They said that such persons "live in their own world" and they feel what they are doing is right.
"We need to treat them with great care else in future they may run away from home and turn violent," he said. (UNI)
MUMBAI, Oct 29/2002:
The sniper attacks in the Washington DC area in the US have revived the memories of a dreaded serial killer of this Island city, Raman Raghav and another infamous "stone man".
After Raman Raghav, who bludgeoned 42 people, mainly beggars and street urchins, to death in the late 1960s, a ‘stone-man’ killed 12 in the Sion and King Circle areas of the city between 1985-87.
Several such cases have remained a mystery as well as a matter of interest for the psychiatrists.
Leading Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Amresh Shrivastava, who runs a rehabilitation centre, ‘Prerna’, said, "they (serial killers) are nothing but mentally ill people."
"They suffer from neurological diseases and their motives are unexplained," he told UNI.
"A very distinct aspect is that their pattern of killings is similar," he said adding that they are all "paranoid psychosis maniac patients".
Dr Shrivastava said besides these, there are psychopaths who carry out such activities under the influence of drugs.
Concurring with the psychiatrist, former Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Y C Pawar said, "the serial killers probably do not know what they are doing and what harm they are causing to the society."
A senior police officer said Raman Raghav, who used to smash the heads of his victims with stones, was a schizophrenic.
Another psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, while refusing to hazard a guess on the similarities of the infamous killers in the country and the sniper attacks in the US, said such people are driven by a particular thought or ideology. "They feel killing is the best way to take revenge," he added.
Leading psychologist Dr P D Lakdawala, whose seniors have analysed the case history of Raman Raghav, said Raghav was sent to the mental asylum at Thane where he subsequenly succumbed to his illness. Dr Lakdawala said Raman Rahgav was suffering from ‘hallucinations and delusions". The serial killer had revealed that he was "following the orders of god".
"Psychopaths (like Raman Raghav or other serial killers) do not have any respect or care for the society and the value system," he added.
"They are irresponsible and aggressive as well as impulsive and they often consume drugs and alcohol," Dr Lakdawala said.
Raman Raghav was arrested in the late 1960s by Assistant Commissioner of Police Alex Fialo. The entire case was handled by Deputy Commissioner of Police Basil Kane.
A senior serving crime branch officer said most of the killings of Raman Raghav were spread in the Ghatkopar, Andheri and Jogeshwari area.
He was picked up on the basis of suspicion and later during the course of interrogation he confessed that he was a serial killer.
"He had designed a weapon on his own and named it ‘Kanpatti’ which was a heavy iron bar with a sharp protruding edge," he said.
He used to target people on the footpath as well as in the small hutments, mainly beggars and street urchins. "The panic was so much that people felt threatened to sleep outside the house," a senior serving officer said adding that the Bombay Crime branch handled the case.
At the Mazagon court, the tall-built darkish complexioned tough-looking Raman Raghav, who sported a mustache, even narrated before the judge how he killed people.
He targetted pavement dwellers sleeping along the streets as well as those sleeping on foot-over bridges.
‘Most of the time he targetted people with a huge stone and at times with the heavy iron rod," sources in the city police recall. However, officials said, he was not violent with the police after he was caught and even at the court room used to answer queries of the prosecutors and judge. Raghav’s "reasoning and answers" were not that satisfactory in view of the fact that he was a patient himself. He also could not give proper answers about his family or when he came to Bombay.
After nearly two years of trial he was sent to Thane mental asylum where he died.
Some 15 years after Raman Raghav’s terror, a series of murders committed in the Sion and King Circle suburbs, north-central Mumbai between 1985 and 1987, again shook the metropolis.
Unfortunately, ‘the stone man’, as he was called, was never caught in spite of efforts by more than a 100 policemen patrolling that area in the night.
The killer, whose modus operandi was to crush the head of his victim using a stone, to date remains untraced.
Police officials said the victims selected at random were mostly beggars. Their heads were smashed with heavy stones, some weighing as much as 30 kg.
The killings took place in the interiors of Koliwada and Sion and between Kings Circle and Sion Circle areas.
However, police officers recall, that the stone killer never attacked those who slept in groups. In most of the cases, the identity of the victims could not be ascertained in view of the fact that they were beggars.
The officers said in the investigation of some of these cases, sniffer dogs were used but they lost the scent during the trail. There were no witnesses to the killings too, so the sketches of the killer could not be prepared.
However, from the weight of the stone police surmised that the killer must have been a strong man. After 1987, though, the incidents stopped and police believe that he might have left the city.
As far as the remedial measures are concerned, psychiatrists say that sending such "mentally ill" patients to a mental asylum is the only answer.
"Treatment needs to be administered to them from childhood itself so that in future they do not become violent," a psychiatrist adds. They said that such persons "live in their own world" and they feel what they are doing is right.
"We need to treat them with great care else in future they may run away from home and turn violent," he said. (UNI)
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