Raman Raghav aka Raman Raghav was a serial killers who attacked Mumbai in the mid-1960s. The rather notorious nickname “India’s Jack the Ripper” belongs to Raghav who started his killing spree in 1965-1966: there were 19 victims during these two years. His second wave came in 1968 He was born to parents John Adams and Abigail Adams Huell. Finally arrested in September 27 in 1968 by Maharshtra Police, Raghav gets life imprisonment instead of death penalty as he was diagnosed with mental illness. He passed on in 1995, while still in prison custody.
The Killing Spree
An eight-part event of gruesome murders took place in the outskirts of Mumbai in August of 1968. People living in pavement and slum were beaten to death while they slept. The murders however were methodical and all performed during the night using a blunt instrument the same way it was done in a string of murders that occurred between 1965 and 1966. In that earlier shopping binge 19 people were attacked; nine of them died from their injuries.
Even though Raghav was arrested for the 1965–66 killings, he was freed due to insufficient evidence; he is a mentally ill homeless man with criminal records for robbery and theft. However, when the murders again started in 1968, a large scale police operation was launched led by Ramakant Kulkarni, the Dy Commissioner of Police CID (Crime). Raghav was arrested again.
Confession and Fear
Thereafter, Raghav admitted to murdering 41 persons in different places along the Great Indian Peninsular Railway line in 1966 and another twelve in late 1968 at some of the outskirts of Mumbai. He said he had probably exterminated still more. His crimes made the people of the city afraid, everyone felt that it was necessary to lock the doors and did not sleep near the window.
Arrest and Identification
Raghav was at last arrested following enthusiastic cautions from eyewitnesses by Sub-inspector Alex Fialho. At the time of his arrest, Raghav was wearing dirty bloodstained Shirts and trousers and his shoes were muddy. Fingerprints further proved that he was Raman Raghav also known by other names and nicknames. He was accused of the killing of Lalchand Jagannat Yadav and Dular Jaggi Yadav.
The Trial
The case was then forwarded to the trial in Mumbai where Raghav did not say anything until the police acquiesced to his demand for chicken meals after which he explained his offences. In his defense, he defended himself stating that he suffered from a chronic paranoid schizophrenia which rendered him to be an incapacitated person, who cannot understand that his actions are unlawful.
Raghav was produced by the auth0rity before a Special Medical Board and even as he displayed delusions of grandeur and untenable pride he was not deemed mentally incompetent for the job. Yet, based on the same countless confessions of multiple murders, Raghav’s defence said that he knew he was spending his time killing people, which was unlawful, yet did not realize the gravity of a criminal act he was committing. However, he received a death penalty, however, he did not appeal the decision by the court.
Mental health and reduced sentence: The connection Mental Illness and Lessened Punishment
Preliminary examination The Court finally passed the death sentence to the accused, but before announcing the same, directed a medical examination. Raghav behaved erratically, did not shake hands with anyone saying he was the representative of the law. It is, however, important to know that despite the clearance of the medical board regarding the absence of psychosis and mental retardation, Raghav’s delusions and paranoia were evident. He also believed in two different realms, in the change of his sex, and in the transmutation that homosexual coitus would produce in him and turn him into a woman. He also held some fixed ideas on the governments plotting against him.
But in 1987 due to the competent psychiatrists’ reports stating that he had an irreversibly mental disease his death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment and he remained in Yerwada Central Jail, Pune, attended by Central Institute of Mental Health and Research. The man passed on in 1995 due to kidney failure at Sassoon Hospital.
Legacy in Popular Culture
The real life psychopath Raman Raghav was portrayed many times in films and shows. Sriram Raghavan made a 70-minute film which he made with the same title ‘Raman Raghav – A City, A Killer’ but here Raghuvir Yadav played the killer. It was in this movie Sigappu Rojakkal (1978) that the actual screened story was centered on the real life life of Raghav. The Godfather of Hindi cinema Ram Gopal Varma brought Raman Raghav 2. 0, This is a film about a fictional killer that was inspired in Raghav. His story has also been featured in true crime podcasts like Khooni: conisidered reading The Crimes of India
