Dubai: In India, a grisly crime unfolded after cops in the capital city of Delhi, nabbed an Ayurvedic (a traditional Indian system of herbal medicine and treatement) doctor who had murdered over a 100 people, and ran a kidney racket, on July 29.
Twitter users in the country are sharing news reports about 62-year-old Devender Sharma, the alleged mastermind, behind the murders of many truck and taxi drivers from Delhi and its neighbouring states. His crimes included a kidney transplant racket, the operation of a fake gas agency and sales of stolen vehicles. People are shocked at how he killed his victims and dumped their bodies in a crocodile-infested canal in Uttar Pradesh, to make sure he left no trace of his crime.
The exact number of the people he killed is unknown. Reportedly, when police arrested him on Wednesday, and questioned him, Sharma said he had lost count after 50 murders.
Sharing a news report, Twitter user @sowmiyashok posted: "This story is wild! Featuring Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, a kidney transplant racket, hungry crocodiles, a fake gas agency, the phrase "wantonly killed cabbies" and starring a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Sciences degree holder."
And, @PrayagIndia tweeted: “From Ayurvedic doctor to serial killer mstermind. A shocking story. If a man thinks he can do it, he can do it.”
Jumped parole
Reportedly, Sharma was arrested after the police department received a tipoff that he had been hiding in Baprola town, on the oukskirts of Delhi, after jumping parole in January.
According to a police officer: "Sharma was serving life sentence in Jaipur Central Jail, for a murder case, and was out on parole for 20 days in January this year after spending 16 years in jail. But, he jumped parole and stayed at his village for a while before moving to Delhi in early March.”
He was arrested twice previously for running a fake gas agency in Uttar Pradesh, and was also jailed for running a kidney racket in different states. According to an Indian news report, to get the gas cylinders for his fake agency, he waylaid gas delivery trucks, and would kill off the drivers. He then went on to killing taxi drivers for their vehicles.
A failed business investment
Reportedly, after receiving his Bachelor's degree from Bihar, Sharma started a clinic in 1984 in Jaipur. In 1992, he invested Rs11 lakh (Dh53,920) in a gas dealership scheme but was cheated and lost his money.
In 1994, Sharma got involved in an interstate kidney transplant racket operating in Jaipur, Ballabhgarh, Gurgaon and other places.
In 1995 he started a fake gas agency in Aligarh, for which he was arrested. After being released, in 2001, he started another fake gas agency at Amroha but was arrested again.
According to the police official: "His accomplices robbed trucks carrying LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) cylinders by killing the driver. They unloaded the trucks in his fake gas agency." Reportedly, the robbed truck would then be dismantled in Meerut, and sold to scrap dealers.
While he was arrested for running the fake gas agencies, the murders remained unsolved.
Reportedly, after the second gas agency shut down, he went to Jaipur and ran a clinic there till 2003. It was during this period that he got in touch with his accomplices who used to hire taxis to Aligarh, and then kill the drivers at secluded places, and dump their bodies in crocodile infested waters in the Hazara canal in Kashganj. Police said that Sharma sold the robbed taxi to customers and earned Rs20,000 to Rs25,000 (Dh980 to Dh1225) per sale.
Apparently, from 1994 to 2004, he claimed to have carried out more than 125 illegal kidney transplants for which he got Rs5 lakh (Dh24,509) to Rs7 lakh (Dh34,312) per case, the police said.
In 2004, he and several other doctors were arrested in the Gurgaon kidney racket case.
Even though Sharma was arrested for several murder cases between 2002 and 2004, he was convicted in only seven cases. His wife and children left him in 2004 after they came to know about his criminal activities, the police officer said.
On parole, Sharma came to Delhi with the intention of starting afresh and married a widow, his distant relative, who knew about his criminal background, the police officer said. He began a property business and was currently mediating the sale of Marshal House in Connaught Place to a property dealer in Jaipur, the police official added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Paweriya said: "Earlier, he was living at the house of an acquaintance in Delhi's Mohan Garden and later moved to Baprola, where he married a widow. Our team arrested him after we received information about his hideout on Tuesday.”
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During his interrogation that started on Tuesday Sharma disclosed the details about his involvement in several cases and admitted to being the mastermind behind over 50 murders, the police said.
