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Chandigarh Police nail serial killer behind 12 years apart twin rape-murders
DNA from the accused’s semen matched with semen collected from the two victims’ bodies, say Chandigarh Police; profiling of 800 suspects over the past year led police to accused
After a gruelling investigation, Chandigarh Police have finally nabbed the serial killer behind the eerily similar murders of two women that occurred 12 years apart.
It was identical semen samples from the bodies of both victims — a 22-year-old MBA student, who was raped and murdered in Sector 38 West in 2010, and a 40-year-old woman who met the same fate in 2-km away Maloya in 2022 — that helped the police nail the accused.
Identified as Monu Kumar, 38, the accused is a taxi driver by profession.
Resident of Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West, he is a father of two daughters, but separated from them and his wife since 2011, said police. He originally hails from Uttar Pradesh and is being interrogated further by cops.
While initially police had reached a dead end in the 2010 rape-murder case and even filed an untraced report in court in February 2020, police got a break following the uncannily similar rape-murder in 2022.
The doctor who had conducted the autopsy of the MBA student in 2010 had also visited the crime spot in 2022 and found similar circumstantial evidence, prompting police to seek DNA tests, conducted mostly in sensitive and heinous crimes, including murder and rape.
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team had preserved semen samples collected from bodies of both victims, making the DNA test possible that eventually established that both women were murdered by the same man.
Taking the probe forward, in 2023, police verified the antecedents of around 800 people in the areas around the murder spots — 500 for the 2010 murder and 300 for the 2022 murder. The district crime cell, which was formed in 2021 to solve heinous crimes, recreated and reinvestigated both cases.
Out of the 800 profiled people, police rounded up 15 prime suspects and collected their semen samples, leading police to Monu Kumar, whose semen samples recently matched with those collected from the victims’ bodies.
“As per police profiling, the accused was likely to be aged between 35 and 40 years, and anywhere between 5’6” and 5’10” in height. Thus, police verified the antecedents all auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, and vegetable vendors living in the vicinity of the murder scenes, especially men living alone for a long time, that led investigators to a taxi driver Monu Kumar as well,” said Chandigarh senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kanwardeep Kaur.
Killer struck twice in 12 years
Shockingly, after the Chandigarh Police failed to trace the accused in the first murder, he targeted the second victim brazenly after 12 years
July 30, 2010: The 22-year-old MBA student was sitting on her scooter and talking to a male friend when someone hit her from behind, before murdering her. Her body was found in semi-naked condition near a taxi stand in Sector 38 West. She was hit on the head with a heavy stone. There were strangulation marks on the neck, and the body also bore severe injuries on the wrist, thigh and the back. Police had filed an untraced report in a local court in 2020, citing that all their efforts to arrest the accused went in vain.
January 11, 2022: The 40-year-old mother of three had gone missing around 8 pm after being dropped at the bus stand in Maloya by her husband. Later her naked body—with her mouth gagged with socks—was found in the bushes, a few metres from her house in Maloya. There were no major injuries on the body and her clothes were found a few metres away from the body. Her husband, 45, who plies an auto-rickshaw, had lodged a missing person complaint after she didn’t return home.
How the investigation unfolded
July 30, 2010: 22-year-old MBA student found murdered in Sector 38 West. Semen sample collected from body
November 2013: Police add rape charges to July 2010 murder case after forensic report confirms victim was raped
February 2020: Police file untraced report in a local court, citing that all their efforts to arrest the accused went in vain
January 2022: 40-year-old woman found murdered near her house in Maloya. CFSL collects semen from victim’s body
December 2022: CFSL verbally shares with UT police that semen collected from bodies of both women belongs to the same man
January 2023 onwards: Police reopen file on the 2010 rape-murder case, along with investigation into the 2022 case. Start profiling suspects living in the vicinity of the murder scenes. Around 800 men profiled and 15 prime suspects narrowed down
May 2024: Police arrest taxi driver Monu Kumar after his semen sample matches those collected from the two victims’ bodies
Father of two daughters, drives taxi on inter-city routes
As per police officials, Monu, who has studied till Class 7, was actively trying to evade arrest over the past 14 years. He hadn’t even registered for an Aadhaar card that could link him to the twin murders.
Investigators said Monu worked as an inter-city taxi driver and thus, mostly stayed out of town. Father of two daughters, he was separated from them and his wife since 2011.
He was also booked in a similar rape-murder case in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, in 2008. However, due to lack of evidence, he was acquitted after an 18-month trial.
Apart from these three murder cases, he is named in seven other cases, mostly for theft. Police will be sharing his information with other states to look into his involvement in any other unsolved murder cases. Chandigarh Police have secured his two-day custody from a local court for further questioning.
