BHOPAL: A serial psycho killer seems to be brutally targeting security guards in sleep in the dead of night in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh.
In the last three nights, three security guards have been attacked in separate police station areas of Sagar city. All three guards died due to head injuries caused by heavy objects, including a stone, a hammer and the wooden handle of a spade.
The first murder happened on August 28-29 intervening night, as Kalyan Lodhi, a 57-year-old security guard of a factory was brutally murdered in Cantt police station area.
Nearly 24 hours later, another security guard Shambhu Narayan Dubey (60) working at the Arts and Commerce College was murdered in sleep while on duty near the college’s canteen in the Civil Lines area on August 29-30 night.
Police found Lodhi's cell phone (with no SIM card), who was killed the previous night near Dubey’s body.
Even before the police probe into the two killings could gather pace, the third killing of another night guard identified as Mangal Ahirwar happened at an under-construction building in the Moti Nagar area. Mangal, who sustained grievous head injuries, was referred to Bhopal hospital by doctors in Sagar, but he died a few hours later in the state capital.
Importantly, three months back, in a similar incident, a middle-aged night guard Uttam Rajak, who worked at an under construction over-bridge site, was found murdered in the same manner in which three other watchmen were killed, suggesting the possibility of a common link to all four brutal killings.
The Sagar district police superintendent Tarun Nayak has constituted multiple teams to track and nab the serial killer and declared Rs 20,000 bounty on the killer’s arrest. A sketch of the suspect has also been released based on the information provided by the serial killer’s latest victim (who died during the course of treatment) and CCTV footage retrieved from the spots of the killing.
MP Home minister Narottam Mishra said, “Entire Sagar district police are on high alert, night patrolling has been intensified further in Sagar and the security guards on night duty at various spots have been put on maximum alert. From the CCTV grabs analysed so far, a man is seen running/fleeing. The ongoing probe suggests that it may be one man who is committing these killings, but till the time the killer is nabbed, commenting further will create confusion.”
Sagar SP Tarun Nayak said, “The police are working on dual strategies, including how to protect people and secondly how to track and nab the killer. Special teams have been constituted and CSP-Sagar is heading the entire probe. We are acting immediately on getting any information. A police team raided a jungle late last night for information about a suspect. We appeal to all those people having CCTV cameras to check the footage of the last few days and share with us anything incriminating, their identity will be kept secret. We’re investigating the common links in all the killings as well as probing them as individual killings, a phone number has been released to get information from people.”