Boasting of murders at tea stall landed serial killer in police net

Lucknow: Boasting about his heinous crimes and making fun of the police landed Kuldeep Kumar Gangwar (38), in police net on Friday, said senior police officials on Saturday. Gangwar is the key suspect in the serial killing of women in rural and jungle areas under Shahi and Sheeshgarh police stations of Bareilly.

Kuldeep had confessed to killing six out of nine women, aged between 42 and 60 years, in different Bareilly villages under Shahi and Sheeshgarh police station limits between June 2023 and July 2024. He was arrested after a marathon search of over 13 months and his involvement in the remaining three murders is also being probed by the police.

Sharing how the police zeroed in on him, a senior police official said 22 different teams formed to trace the killer(s) were struggling but suddenly 10 days ago a tip-off from a person worked . He said the person shared an audio clip with a police personnel that was recorded at a tea stall where an unidentified person was boasting about the murders of women he had committed and mocking that the police had been unable to trace and arrest him for the past so many months.

“The informer said the suspect seemed to be somewhat mentally unstable and was behaving in a very odd manner. He informed that the suspect was boasting about murders committed by him while sipping tea at the stall. The suspect was also making fun of the police that they were not able to arrest him even after so much effort,” he said .

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“We initially questioned the tea stall owner and other people in the vicinity to get a clue about the suspect, but everybody feigned ignorance about him. The police then got prepared three sketches of the suspect based on his facial and physical appearance described by the informer and some other people at the tea stall,” he said, adding , “The sketches were circulated and posters were pasted in the area after which the police teams managed to get hold of Kuldeep, whose face matched with two of the three sketches”.

The police official said Kuldeep never showed any resistance and easily confessed to committing six murders. The belongings of these six victims were also recovered from him as he kept them with him to have a count of women killed by him.

He said the accused was even taken to some of the crime scenes to recreate the sequence of events on Friday evening, where he informed the investigators how he committed the murders.

The official said the accused was a resident of adjoining Bakarganj village under Nawabganj police station and was aware about different routes of the region. He said the accused never carried any mobile phone nor travelled in any vehicle. “He often used to walk around and target lonely women working in the fields and jungle areas. He first used to ensure that nobody was around and then he would walk closer to the woman to make sexual advances. He would become violent and attack the woman on facing denial or resistance and strangle her to death. He used to tighten a knot made of the women’s clothes around their necks to ensure their deaths,” he stated and added, “When questioned, he admitted having sexial desires, but expressed his inability to rape any woman.”