When Vitthal Bhajantri was arrested on January 21,he surprised the Mumbai Police team that had followed him all the way to Afzalpur village in Gulbarga district, Karnataka. “Just a few niceties and Bhajantri very calmly told us about all the murders he committed. And he was candid when he said to kill him in custody because he was sure that if he was let off, he would continue to kill people,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

Bhajantri, 26, is a daily wage labourer with different catering firms. To Bandra police officers, he is the ‘Stone Man’ who smashed his victims’ heads with a heavy stone and they’ve been looking for him since October 2017. So far, Bhajantri has confessed to five murders and the police have found four of the bodies. In two of the cases from 2017, the police had registered a case of accidental death and unnatural death, but there was no evidence to lead them to the accused. Now, thanks to Bhajantri’s confession, they know what happened.

The first murder Bhajantri committed was on October 13, 2017, in Mahim after a fellow labourer named Jamura taunted Bhajantri and his friend Suraj. After getting drunk with Jamura and Suraj, Bhajantri hit Jamura’s head with a stone repeatedly till Jamura was dead. The body was found near Mahim causeway, said officers from Bandra police.

Less than a month later, Bhajantri committed his next murder. After a fellow daily wage labourer Bangali taunted Bhajantri for being weak, his body was found in a decomposed state in the sea, near the mangroves at the intersection of Bandra (West) and Mahim. Bhajantri said he killed him on November 7, 2017.

“Once he consumes alcohol, it sparks an uncontrollable rage in Bhajantri. The rage translates into brutal violence and he would keep hitting the victim’s head with a rock,” said an officer.

However, Bhajantri wasn’t always an out-of-control killer. Grace John, outreach supervisor of Don Bosco Shelter in Wadala, remembers him as a calm boy who disliked loud noises and used to call her “Mummy”. “I saw him for the first time in early 2005-06. He had come to our dropping box in Dadar. At that time, he was a child,” said John. “In 2016, he again came to Wadala where we hold a mela for street children and poor. I told him to stop doing drugs and learn a specific skill.”

Unfortunately, Bhajantri’s promise that he’d change his ways wouldn’t come to pass. A year later, he’d begin his killing spree. After killing Bangali, Bhajantri went to in Afzalpur, where his seven siblings live. There, he witnessed a fight between his sister and brother in-law, Devendra Pandit. On November 12, 2017, Bhajantri killed Pandit by smashing his head in with a rock in a nearby field. Pandit’s body was found days later and Bhajantri was arrested by Afzalpur police on December 6, 2017. After being in judicial custody for nearly a year, he was out on bail in December 2018 and headed straight for Mumbai, plotting his next murder.

“Bhajantri was insecure that his friend Suraj, who knew about his first two murders, might inform someone. On January 4, he took Suraj to Bandra pipeline where he told him that he had some work. He then sodomised him, and made another friend, Surendra Kumar Kanojia, sodomise him, before killing him with a rock,” said an officer.

Suraj’s murder was being investigated by police sub-inspector Bhimsen Gaikwad of Bandra police. Gaikwad found the victim’s clothes 200 metres away from the naked body, towards Mahim. “On further enquiry we went to Mahim and traced the man who was last seen with the deceased in Karnataka. I went with my team to Gulbarga, where the accused hailed from,” said Gaikwad.

At Gulbarga, the police team learnt of Bhajantri being arrested for Pandit’s murder. They began looking for him, but Bhajantri was able to evade them. Bhajantri was ultimately spotted on January 19, walking on the highway and taken in for questioning.

Police officials say once they spoke to Bhajantri kindly, he quickly confessed to being a serial killer. He also told them his rage and violence were rooted in childhood trauma he suffered as a 12-year-old working as a labourer in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. “Other daily wagers who were adults used to drug him with cheap narcotics and used to sodomise him. Bhajantri was sodomised multiple times, which scarred him,” said an officer.

Bhajantri told investigators that whenever anyone taunted him, he would consume alcohol and this would lead to murdering people, most of whom were his childhood friends. He also said if he was let off, he’d kill again.

First Published: Feb 05, 2019 11:13 IST