WHEN A MOCKINGBIRD KILLS
THE WEEK India|July 31, 2022
Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi is a gripping tale of a serial killer who dared to taunt the cops
POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL
WHEN A MOCKINGBIRD KILLS

Between October 2006 and May 2007, Chandrakant Jha dumped three nude, headless and decapitated dead bodies outside New Delhi's Tihar Jail. The bodies were packed in gunny bags and placed inside fruit baskets, with handwritten notes daring the Delhi Police to nab him.

"Till date, I have endured the punishment for crimes I did not commit, but now I have murdered for real. I challenge you to catch me. More gifts are coming.... Your daddy," he wrote in one such chilling note, left inside a basket containing a human torso. He had chopped off the victim's body and dumped each limb in a different area in the city.

In another letter, he wrote about dumping a headless male body in a plastic bag tied with ropes near gate no 1 of Tihar Jail in 2003. The police even then was helpless. For, what does one do in the face of headless bodies turning up in the capital? Each year, the Delhi Police sees 40-50 such cases that remain unsolved because of lack of identity.

The Delhi Police, however, caught up to Jha. Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi, a Netflix docu-series directed by Ayesha Sood, tracks Jha's gory, disturbingly violent and spine-chilling story, and how the police tied the loose ends to nab him.

This story is from the July 31, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.

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This story is from the July 31, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.

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