In an era where doctors are being considered as angels in the fight against the deadly virus, there were times when monsters disguised in the form of such angels took tens of lives of innocents. One such is an ayurvedic doctor from Uttar Pradesh
This doctor is infamous for having claimed many lives, instead of saving them. He has been accused of murdering over 50 people in Delhi and its adjoining states.
The serial killer, who had jumped parole, was arrested from the national capital city on Wednesday after several attempts to catch hold of him. According to the police, he had made Baprola as his hideout since January. The area is located on the outskirts of the national capital.
Police officials allege that he may have played roles in more than 100 killings, though a precise number of his murderous cases haven’t been formulated yet due to the several FIRs registered against him. His crimes are spread over Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, and possibly other places as well.
The man, Devender Sharma is a 62-year-old Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery. He hails from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Police reports say that Sharma was booked in many kidnapping and murder cases. He even owned a fake gas agency in his home state for which he was arrested twice. His list of illegal activities also includes a kidney racket that ran in several states.
“Sharma was serving a life sentence in Central Jail, Jaipur in 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,” a police officer 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,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) RakeshPaweriya said.
The man relocated to Delhi to mark a new beginning to his life. He then got married to his distant family member who was well-versed with his criminal activities. His next agenda to earn money was by running a real estate business. Sharma, when found, was on the verge of closing a deal with a property dealer in Jaipur regarding the sale of Connaught Place’s Marshal House.
His interrogation that started on Tuesday went on till morning the next day. The police said he remained calm and cooperated with the team, disclosing details about his involvement in several cases.
Sharma accepted having carried out more than 50 murders during police questioning. Between the years 2002-2004, he was arrested for a lot of murders. However, he could be proved guilty for only seven cases. He was deserted by his wife and children as well in 2004 after learning about his horrendous crimes.
The man disclosed that he couldn’t remember the number of his victims past 50, as it was difficult to keep the count.
After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Siwan in Bihar, he owned a clinic in 1984 in Jaipur. In 1992, he invested Rs 11 lakh in a gas dealership scheme but was cheated, leading to a financial crisis. In 1995, he started a fake gas agency at Chhara village in Aligarh and later got involved in criminal activities, the police said.
1994 marked the year for his other illegal activity- the interstate kidney transplant racket in Jaipur, Ballabhgarh, Gurgaon, and many other towns. The police busted the racket in 2004 and arrested Sharma and the several other doctors involved in the case.
From 1994 to 2004, he claimed to have carried out more than 125 illegal kidney transplants for which he got Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per case, the police said.
He was back to his fake gas agency business in 2001 at Amroha but was arrested yet again.
In this, he reached Jaipur where he started a clinic and ran it till 2003. He worked parallel with his associates with the help of whom, he would rent taxis to Aligarh. They would kill the drivers when they’d reach isolated areas, throwing the bodies as a feast to the crocodiles present in the Hazara canal in Kashganj.
“His accomplices robbed trucks carrying LPG cylinders by killing the driver. They unloaded the trucks in his fake gas agency and then the robbed truck would be dismantled in Meerut,” the police officer said.
The stolen taxis would also be sometimes sold to people in Kashganj for Rs. 20,000- Rs. 25,000. Delhi police said that the Jaipur police have been alerted of the arrest and Sharma would be taken in custody by them soon.
