On the run, ‘Butcher of Delhi’ nabbed by cops
Decapitating his victims, dismembering their bodies and leaving the remains outside Tihar Jail with a note challenging the police to catch him — this was the chilling modus operandi of serial killer Chandrakant Jha, who terrorised the national capital with a series of gruesome murders in the mid-2000s.
Jha was arrested by the Delhi Police on Friday at Old Delhi Railway Station after evading authorities for nearly a year following his parole violation.
The series of murders that shook Delhi to its core and instilled widespread fear became the subject of the Netflix documentary ‘Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi’. Jha committed seven heinous murders.
A native of Bihar, Jha migrated to Delhi in 1990 and settled near Azadpur Mandi. He had five daughters from his second marriage.
According to police records, Jha initially engaged in burglaries. However, in 1998, he committed his first murder by killing Mangal, alias Aurangzeb, in Adarsh Nagar. He dismembered the body and disposed of the parts at various locations, creating a sensation across the city.
The police arrested Jha in 1998, and he remained in jail for the next four years. Upon his release, Jha turned into a remorseless killer, murdering six more people between 2002 and 2007.
Jha’s motives for the murders were bizarre. He killed one person for being a drunkard and a liar, another for smoking ganja, one for womanising and another for being a non-vegetarian.
“Jha was a brutal killer. He would take offence at people’s minor habits like drinking, eating meat, womanising, lying, or even dalliances. He would turn savagely violent at the slightest provocation, leading to brutal murders,” said Additional Commissioner of Police Sanjay Sain.
Jha would tie his victims’ hands under the guise of punishing them. The victims, unsuspecting of their fate, believed they might face minor physical abuse. Instead, Jha would strangle them using a locally made nunchaku, then decapitate and dismember their bodies.
He packed the remains in plastic bags and transported them in his cycle-rickshaw, which had a scooter engine fitted to it. In the early hours, he would dump the remains at pre-identified locations.
“The entire process of cutting and packing the body was carried out with extreme precision. Jha himself boasted about his ‘elegant operation’, which minimised blood splatter. He would challenge law enforcement agencies by leaving letters with the bodies,” added the senior officer.
Jha’s killing spree ended when he was found guilty of three murders. In February 2013, he received two death sentences and life imprisonment. However, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without remission in January 2016.
In October 2023, Jha was released on parole for 90 days, but didn’t surrender afterwards. He evaded capture by hiding at many places. While attempting to leave Delhi permanently after visiting his family in Alipur, he was arrested by the police.