NEW DELHI: Ayurveda practitioner-turned-serial killer – the infamous Doctor Death, who fed his victims to crocodiles – was arrested by Delhi Police after he jumped parole last year, a senior official said.The absconder was posing as a priest under a false identity at an ashram in Rajasthan’s Dausa when he was arrested on Monday, he added.
67-year-old Devender Sharma was convicted in multiple murder cases. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in seven separate cases across Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, and a Gurgaon court even awarded him capital punishment.
DCP (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam said Sharma had been serving life sentence in Tihar Jail for the brutal killings of several taxi and truck drivers between 2002 and 2004, when he jumped parole in August 2023.
“Sharma and his accomplices used to call drivers on fake trips, murder them and sell their vehicles in the grey market,” the DCP said. The bodies were then thrown into the crocodile-infested waters of Hazara Canal at Kasganj in UP to erase evidence.
The officer said Sharma has a long criminal history involving at least 27 cases of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
He first gained notoriety for running an illicit kidney transplant racket between 1995 and 2004.
Convict in disguise
During his time as a fugitive, Sharma was living under a false identity in the disguise of a priest at an ashram in Rajasthan’s Dausa after he had jumped parole in August 2023.