NEW DELHI: The sun barely rose over the horizon on May 18, 2007, when a chilling phone call was made to the police control room. A mysterious voice informed the authorities that a dead body was lying in a gunny bag outside the gates of Tihar Jail. The call was received by ASI Rampal, who quickly alerted the police station at Hari Nagar.
A team of investigators rushed to the scene. Inspector Malkiat Singh and his team carefully opened the bag, revealing a gruesome discovery. Inside, they found a headless torso, mutilated beyond recognition, with limbs severed below the knees and private parts removed. But what caught the investigators off guard was a letter, written in green ink on yellow paper, tucked inside the bag.
The caller and the letter writer was none other than convicted serial killer Chanderkant Jha, arrested again on Friday by the crime branch after jumping parole in 2023.
Undoubtedly, the most striking aspect of Jha’s modus operandi were his calls to the police informing them about the location of body parts and the letters he left beside the bodies, mocking the cops for their “inefficiency and incompetency”. However, these were what led to his arrest and later constituted “clinching evidence”, leading the courts to hand him two death sentences, which were later commuted to life in prison.
Analysis of the court documents from the time shows that the public witness, Devraj (PW-6), who was a telephone booth operator in Timarpur, identified Jha as the person who made the call at about 6.20 am on May 18, 2007, to the police control room from his PCO after inserting a coin.
“After some time, the same person again came and inserted another coin which came out. This only happened when the call was made to the police (100). Devraj then asked the said person to disclose who he was calling. The caller became perplexed, handed over the coin, and left the shop. Hours later, the cops reached the PCO and questioned Devraj, who also helped them prepare a sketch,” the document states.
Similarly, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, a handwriting expert, compared the letters to Jha’s specimen handwriting and concluded that the letters were written by the same person. “The analysis reveals striking similarities in letter formation, size, and proportion,” the report reads.
“Similarities are also observed in general features such as writing movement, skill, speed, spacing, and the nature of commencing and terminating strokes. There is no divergence observed between the questioned and specimen writings,” it adds.
Interestingly, Jha is believed to be preparing his own defence, which was delivered by his lawyer, provided by the court. “He read all his case files and papers, consulted and read relevant law books to prepare his case,” recalled an investigator.
So, when the calls and letters were cited as evidence, Jha was quick to call them “police plants”. He called the letters concocted evidence prepared by the cops and the PCO operator a police stooge. However, the evidence was too strong to be overlooked. Jha also contested his date of arrest, i.e., May 20, 2007, saying it was a day before that, but the court said at most it could be a procedural error.
The court documents also contain the letter written by Jha. A letter reads: “My dear friends, from the rank of Delhi Home Guard to IPS, this is an open challenge. If you really think you’re capable, then catch me if you can. You file false cases, harass innocent people, and defame them to the point where they can’t even earn a living. But you forget that when an honest man turns to crime, it gets dangerous.”
Jha goes on to tell the police about his involvement in another murder. “I also want to tell SHO Hoshiyar Singh regarding the dead body found on 20.10.2006, you didn’t properly investigate it. The body had ‘Amit’ written on its hand, but you didn’t even get the name published in the newspapers.”
“Bodies will keep coming unless you arrange a meeting between me and DCP Manish Kumar Aggarwal. Announce a reward to make this game more interesting. Ensure the reward is worthy of my work, or I’ll be dishonoured and make sure to shame all of you,” he concluded.
