Chilling Details on How Bareilly Serial Killer Targeted Woman, He Called Them 'Shikaar'

Bareilly: Chilling details have emerged in the killings of multiple women by a serial killer in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district following the arrest of 35-year-old accused last week. According to sources, nine women were found murdered over 14 months in the district.

After a long hunt for the accused, police arrested Kuldeep Kumar Gangwar. Police said Gangwar had confessed to murdering six women. Police said the accused was spotted when he sighted talking to many women near sugarcane fields.

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• Probe revealed that all the victims targeted by Gangwar were aged between 45 and 65 years. All the bodies were strangulated using saris or dupattas. All the crimes took place on sugarcane fields because the crop provided a perfect cover for the accused.
• Police suspect that that he attempted sexual assault on victims as they had injuries to their inner thighs and chins.
• Gangwar's first alleged target was a 45-year-old woman who had gone to a nearby village to get medicine for her backache. Two days later, her body was recovered from her husband's uncle's sugarcane field.
• A few days later, a 55-year-old woman was found dead in a nearby village. The police later installed CCTV cameras in several villages to catch the culprit.
• After the killing of five victims, the murders paused for seven months. However, on July 2, 2024, the sixth woman was murdered.
• According to police, the accused himself took the cops to crime spots.
• He used a similar pattern in executing the crime against women -- by strangling. He would do this either with his bare hands or their clothes. It was found during the investigation that the knots of the clothes were always tied to the left.
• The accused revealed that his father would beat up his mother at the behest of his stepmother.
• He would speak softly with women but he would get enraged if they resisted his advances.
• The police suspect he might be involved in more murders. They said he called his six victims "shikaar" with no signs of remorse.
• The accused was married but his wife left him owing to his tendency of violent outbursts.
• He landed in police net after he openly bragged about his murders and mocked the police for failing to catch him.

Accused Developed Aggression Towards Women Due to Past Experience: Police

According to SSP Anurag Arya, "There were 6 incidents of murder which were not worked out, we worked them out and arrested the accused today. His name is Kuldeep. He has committed 6 murders and he has taken us to all the crime scenes. His family background has been disturbed. He feels that his stepmother and father used to beat his mother. After that, he got married and his wife also left him in 2018 due to his violent nature. Due to this, he had aggression towards women and because of that aggression, he started doing drugs."

"He used to consume cannabis and alcohol. He used to go through fields, footpaths and wherever he felt that there was a woman alone in some deserted area, he used to approach such a woman nearby and when the woman used to protest, he suddenly became hyper, he became aggressive and then commits murder...," the SSP added.

How Police Nabbed the Accused

A police official explained how they found Gangwar. Last month, someone gave them an audio clip recorded at a tea stall where Gangwar was boasting about his murders and mocking the police for their failure to catch him. The informer noted that Gangwar seemed mentally unstable and acted strangely.

The police questioned the tea stall owner and other people nearby, but no one had any information. They then created three sketches of the suspect based on descriptions from the informer and other people on the tea stall. The sketches and posters were circulated, leading to Gangwar’s arrest as his appearance matched two of the sketches.

The man later confessed to six murders. He kept the belongings of these six victims to keep a count. The police have recovered these items from his possession. He also revealed his sexual desires but expressed his inability to rape any woman.