The accused told investigators that whenever anyone taunted him, he would consume alcohol and murder people. He also added that if he was let off, he would kill again.
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The Mumbai Police were shocked after Vitthal Bhajantari, 26, a daily wage labourer who was arrested on January 21 said that if he let off, he would kill more people.
Hindustan Times quoted a police officer saying, "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."
Bandra police have also been looking for the accused since October 2017. They recognise him as the Stone Man who smashed the victims' head with a heavy stone.
Bhajantari confessed to five murders and so far the police have found four bodies. In two of those cases, the police had registered a case of unnatural death and accidental death as there was no evidence which could lead them to the accused.
Bhajantari committed the first murder on October 13, 2017, in Mahim when a fellow labourer taunted him and his friend Suraj. After they were drunk, Bhajantari hit the victim's head with a stone until he was dead. Bandra police said that his body was found on Mahim causeway.
Not a month had gone by when the accused committed the second murder. The reason for the murder was very similar to the first one. Another fellow daily wage labourer, Bangali had taunted Bhajantari for being weak and after that, his body was found in a decomposed state in the sea near the mangroves at the intersection of Bandra West and Mahim. Bhajantari had killed him on November 7, 2017, he said.
An officer said, "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."
Grace John, an outreach supervisor of Don Bosco shelter in Wadala, said that he was 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."
A year after that, Bhajantari went to Afzalpur where his seven siblings live. After witnessing a fight between his sister and brother-in-law, Devendra Pandit, he smashed Pandit's head with a rock. After some days, Pandit's body was found and Bhajantari was arrested by the police on December 6, 2017. He stayed in judicial custody for a year and was out in 2018 on bail. He came straight to Mumbai to plot 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.
Bhajantri was spotted on January 19, walking on the highway and taken in for questioning. According to officers, Bhajantari quickly confessed his crime of being a serial killer. "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.
The accused told investigators that whenever anyone taunted him, he would consume alcohol and murder people. He also added that if he was let off, he’d kill again.
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