3 chopped bodies in 10 days: Delhi cops probe if a serial killer is on loose

Three different teams of investigators are comparing notes to answer a question that’s haunting Delhi police: Has a new serial killer emerged in the Capital?

Three different teams of investigators are comparing notes to answer a question that’s haunting Delhi police: Has a new serial killer emerged in the Capital?

Three mutilated bodies have been found in a 10-kilometre radius in south Delhi over the last 10 days. The modus operandi seems similar — the bodies were mutilated, hacked and dumped in drains or street corners. In each case, police believe the murder was carried out far from the spot where the body was recovered. The bodies were either naked or dressed only in undergarments.

However, senior police officers are hesitant to attribute the murders to a single killer — or even suggest that they may be linked — because they don’t have any evidence to support the theory. Moreover, they have not been able to identify the victim or recover the murder weapon in any of the cases.

“It could be a mere coincidence that all the three bodies were hacked. Our teams are working on solving this case soon,” joint commissioner of police (south west) Dependra Pathak told HT.

The first incident came to light on November 25, when the decapitated body of a woman — possibly in her mid-30s — was recovered from a sewer on the ground floor of a Munirka building. A week later, on the morning of November 2, a murdered man with his legs chopped off was found under a tree in Mangal Bazar area of Sangam Vihar.

In the third incident, the body of a woman with her lower torso missing was fished out of a drain near the Delhi Jal Board office at Amar Colony on November 3.

“On Sunday evening, police found a human torso in a sewer located 50 metres from the scene of the crime. As it was partially eaten by street dogs, they were unable to verify if it belonged to a man or a woman. “We think the torso belongs to the victim. We will ask doctors to conduct DNA and bone tests to confirm this. The body part was in a highly decomposed state,” an officer said.

Read | Delhi: Woman’s headless, decomposed body found in sewer in Munirka

The head of the decapitated woman is yet to be recovered.

Police believe all the three victims were from places outside Delhi because they were unable to match them with missing reports filed in the city over the last one month.