Suspected Serial Killer Kantrulu’s Involvement With The Police And Mafia Was Not Known To Those Who Knew Him

TAKING THE LOW ROAD: The small alley in Dhobi Talao where Ravindra Kantrulu used to sleep on the street

Under a cloud of secrets

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Outside the Baba Bahauddin shrine near Bombay Hospital, the people who run food stalls, juice shops and paanbeedi stalls have suddenly become interested in the day’s news. They buy English, Marathi and Urdu papers and discuss the south Mumbai serial killings. This may not differentiate them from most Mumbaikars, except that they regularly met the prime suspect, 36-year-old Ravindra Kantrulu, everyday for the past several years.

“We are recognising his picture in the papers and so we are reading the news,’’ said one stall owner, who like most people refused to be named. “But before this we never knew he had a criminal past or was a police informer,’’ he added.

Kantrulu, who slept on the nearby 4th Marine Street, had been visiting the dargah for 15 years so he could eat at the shrine where ‘langar’ food, which is funded through charity, was distributed. “He seemed friendly with the police, but only now are we learning about his secret life,’’ said Irishad Sheikh, a stall worker.

Regulars at the shrine are now becoming acquainted with the cloud of secrets under which Kantrulu lived. “Though we don’t know much about him, he told us he left home when he was around 15. He told us his drunken father would beat his mother and when he intervened he was also beaten up,’’ said Saleem Shaikh, owner of a shop Kantrulu visited twice a week.

Kantrulu studied at Our Lady of Dolours School, Marine Lines, before dropping out and selling fruits on the streets as a teenager. His father, Parshuram, was a peon at the school. “His father lost most of their possessions through betting, which upset his mother. She used to beg. Sometimes, Kantrulu gave her money,’’ said Chand Shah, a beggar who has been visiting the Marine Lines shrine for 30 years.

After leaving home, Kantrulu took shelter with drug addicts at Dhobi Talao and visited the shrine thrice a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With food being no problem, Kantrulu didn’t work. Several robbers also visited the shrine and one group befriended Kantrulu. Police said that he joined the Dashrath Rane gang and participated in at least seven crimes. “He knew south Mumbai well and provided them information. Soon he got a higher position in the gang, but was jailed for two years in the mid-1990s,’’ said a police officer.

In 1993, Kantrulu fell in love with a commercial sex worker, Anjali, and married her. They lived in a hut on 4th Marine Street. Later, he was arrested for attempted murder and jailed. In jail, he joined Amar Naik’s gang. In 1997, Naik was killed by police and Kantrulu was arrested.

While in custody, a police officer convinced him to lead a respectable life. Kantrulu was released on bail and became a police informer. “Six years ago, he converted to Islam and took the name Abdur Raheem,’’ said a shop owner near the Marine Lines shrine.

After his conversion, he started a fruit stall outside the shrine, but it was demolished by the BMC since it had no licence. His temporary shanty was also demolished when the road was widened. This led to a fight with his wife and she started living with her parents in Chhatisgarh more often.

Kantrulu’s attempts to reform through marriage, religion, becoming a police informer and running a legitimate business have now fallen apart. If he is the serial killer, then he lived a double life, informing the police by day and murdering at night.

Abdul Gani Shah, 84, who has been visiting the shrine since 1950 said he knew Kantrulu well. “I don’t think he has killed anyone. He would come here regularly, eat and leave quietly. He would smoke ganja or charas, that was all.’’

mateen.hafeez@timesgroup.com

The Times of India, February 17, 2007