Updated Feb 20, 2026, 20:35 IST
On a dry afternoon in August 1968, a man was spotted walking through Bhendi Bazaar with a soaking wet umbrella. It hadn't rained there, but it had poured in Malad. This small slip-up would end the reign of India’s most terrifying serial killer: Raman Raghav.
For two months, the "Beast of Bhendi Bazaar" haunted the northern suburbs. His targets? The poorest pavement dwellers and slum residents. He struck in their sleep, using a modified iron crowbar. The motive remained a mystery, leaving the Bombay Police baffled and the public in a state of vigilante hysteria.
Raghav’s cruelty was matched only by his coldness. After bashing his victims' skulls, he would often sit beside their bodies and finish their leftover dinner—rice, rotis, and buttermilk. He claimed he was following a "higher law," a "kanoon" delivered by a wireless signal inside his head.
Sub-inspector Alex Fialho noticed the man with the wet umbrella and placed a hand on his shoulder. Raman Raghav didn’t run. He confessed to 24 murders almost immediately, asking only for two plates of chicken and a bottle of coconut oil for a massage before he would lead police to his hidden weapons.
Psychiatrists diagnosed Raghav with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. He believed a "voice" commanded him to kill to protect his manhood. He lived in a world of delusions, where he saw ordinary men as adversaries and believed he was settling a cosmic debt with every strike of his crowbar.
Public imagination ran wild. Rumors spread that Raghav had supernatural powers—that he could turn into a parrot, a dog, or a cat to escape. In reality, he was simply a shadow in the night, moving so swiftly and silently that even those sleeping inches away from his victims never heard a whimper.
After his death sentence was commuted to life due to his mental state, Raman Raghav spent his final decades behind the high walls of Yerwada Jail. He died in 1995, taking the full depth of his "inner kanoon" to the grave, leaving behind a city that would never quite forget the monsoon of 1968.
Top 10 Richest People In Mumbai
Kalyan Railway Shock: Woman Bitten, Finger Twisted by Co-Passenger in Mumbai Local Rush
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
