Ram Singh, order the prime accused in The Nirbhaya Rape Case
1: The Nirbhaya Rape Case
The gang rape of the girl ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi in 2012 stirred up the entire nation, cheap shining a spotlight on the issue of violence against women. Nirbhaya died from her wounds inflicted on that fateful night when she was brutally gang raped aboard a bus, help her insides destroyed with an iron rod. But considering the impact her case has made on our misogynistic society, hopefully for the better, it appears her death was not in vain. And the culprits have now been given the death sentence.
2: 26/11 Mumbai Attack
The attacks 26/11 have also made an indelible mark on the national psyche. And many in Mumbai still suffer from devastating flashbacks. It was a Tuesday, 5 years ago when a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists turned Mumbai into a war zone, staging a series of attacks at five-star hotels and other venues around the city. The attacks began on 26th November, 2008 and lasted four days, killing over 166 people and injuring at least 300. Ajmal Kasab, the man who led the mission, was finally hanged last November.
The Taj in flames during the 26/11 attack
3: Noida Double Murder Case
On the night of 15-16 May, 2008, 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and 45-year-old Hemraj, a domestic helper employed by her family, were murdered at Aarushi’s home in Noida. This was a huge whodunit story throughout India. When Aarushi’s body was discovered, Hemraj emerged as the main suspect, until his own murdered body was discovered on the terrace a day later. The ensuing investigation pointed the blame at Aarushi’s parents – Dr. Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar – and subsequently on other of the family’s employees. The case made the rounds through various bureaucratic entities, with a great deal of intrigue, mutual recriminations and intense media coverage, and last November the parents were sentenced to life in prison. They are challenging the decision in the Allahabad High Court. It appears the mystery has yet to be solved.
Dr Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, prime suspacts of the Noida Double Murder Case.
4 The Shakira Khalili Murder Case
It was 20 years ago when Shakira Khalili, the beautiful granddaughter of the former Dewan of the princely state of Mysore, left her husband and four kids to marry the sham Swami Shraddhananda. It took investigators 14 years to discover her dead body buried in the backyard of her Richmond Road house in Bangalore. The swami was convicted of the crime and is still serving his time after he received a death sentence nine years ago. Shakira’s daughter Sabah said she believed her mother was buried alive, considering that the bones of one of her hands were curled up around a mattress as they dug her up.
Swami Shraddhananda, the mastermind behind Shakira Khalili Murder Case
5 Nithari Case of Noida
This case involves businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant who lived in Nithari. Between 2005 and 2006, many children from Nithari village went missing. Residents eventually discovered the decomposed bodies of 15 children in a drainage tank behind a white house that belonged to Pandher. The Nithari residents suspected that Pandher and his servant had something to do with it but the case went nowhere. When the CBI took over the case, they found that Pandher would force his servant Surender Koli to kidnap these children, after which they would torture and cut the children to bits. Both culprits were eventually given the death sentence, as the case was classified as ‘rarest of rare.’ However, Pandher was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in 2009, though he still faces trial on several other counts. Koli’s death sentence has been upheld.
One of the victims of Nithari Case of Noida
6 Somnath Parida chopped his wife into 300 pieces
Somnath Parida, 72, was a retired doctor who lived with his wife Ushashree 62 in Orissa. They had been married for 42 years, their children were well settled abroad and they had a relatively good life together, although people did mention that the old man had a short temper. One day last year Ushashree went missing. Soon, relatives got a whiff of ‘a decomposing body stench.’ Authorities say Parida not only murdered Ushashree, but also cut up her body into 300 pieces and put them in 22 steel trunks. He’s currently in custody.
Somnath Parida
7 Ram Niranjan, the cannibal
Ram Niranjan is serving a life sentence for murdering, cooking and then consuming his dead victims. He tortured and brutally killed his victims according to their castes after befriending and inviting them to his farmhouse. Niranjan acquired the name vampire man or ‘Nar Pischach’ after he killed journalist Dhirendra Singh. When arresting him, the police found 13 skulls and learned he liked to eat his victims’ brains and then hang up their skulls as trophies. Between 1998 and 2000, he and his brother in law Vaksharaj were found to have killed 14 people. Niranjan was finally sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.
Ram Niranjan the Cannibal
8 The Psycho Raman Case
One of the most deadly serial killers has got to be madman Raman Raghav, who committed some of the most horrendous murders in Mumbai in the 1960s. Raghav killed over 30 people between 1965 and 1968, including his own sister who he raped and stabbed several times. He was arrested after a girl called Krithika identified this strange man killing a victim on the outskirts of town. On arresting him, police found that he suffered from schizophrenia.
Psycho Raman Raghav who commited more than 30 murders
9 The Suryanelli Rape Case
This case involves a 16-year-old girl who was raped by a number of different men for 40 days in 1996. The girl was originally from Suryanelli village in Kerala. She was coerced into eloping with her lover, who disappeared during the journey. A woman and an advocate approached her, and the lawyer ended up taking her to a lodge where he raped her. The pair dragged her around Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where she was repeatedly raped by several men, including a number of highly influential ones. A total of 35 people were sentenced to prison for involvement in the case in 2000, but another court acquitted them all five years later, claiming the sex was consensual. However, the Delhi bus gang rape in 2012 shed a new spotlight on the case, and the acquittals were overturned last year. At one point the victim accused Congress minister PJ Kurien after spotting him on TV but the charges against him didn’t stick. The 2006 movie Achanurangatha Veedu was in part based on the Suryanelli case.
Congress Minister PJ Kurien the man mentioned in the Suryanelli rape case
10 Umesh – The Ripper Murder Case
This serial rapist was actually once a police constable till his warped sexual fantasies got the better of him. Between 1996 and 2006 he did terrible things to women, including raping a military commander’s daughter, and raping, robbing and murdering some 20 women in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. This cop turned serial rapist deserved a death sentence and got one in 2006.
