The Maxi-cab Murderers

Murderers do not come out of the same box everywhere. They are evolved through a multitude of factors. These factors are many and distinct. What if the socio-political, economic, and geographic distinctions of each region can create unique murders with out of the world ways of committing murders. The maxi cab murderers of India is an example of such a unique phenomenon.

Indian Railway Stations and bus stations are known for bustling activities with large crowds. This is where the maxi cab murderers hunt their victims with ingenuity. Out in the middle of the crowd when everyone is watching, but no one else was thinking, they skulk for their victims.

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They waited in their maxi cabs, acting as if the driver and other passengers ready to leave to wherever someone in a hurry wanted to go with just one seat vacant in the middle of it. Maxi-Cabs are small four-wheeler vans that ferry passengers in busy roads in India for a nominal charge. Once they identify a victim, they would offer the vacant seat, and the cabs will start to drive around in the city. Once the cab reaches a deserted road, the faking co-passengers on both sides would strangle the traveler. Unable to fight against the unimaginable swift aggression from the innocent-looking co-passengers, the victims will die in a matter of a minute or few more seconds. The body of the victim will be parted from any valuables, and will be dumped in drainages. The killers will soon drive back to their favorite cruising spot, and they will wait for the next person in need of a drive. The unfortunate passengers would lie dead in the drainages unable to reach their destinations. The man missing cases filed by the relatives of the unfortunate victims would sit on some dusty tables of police stations until some police officers connect the dots between an unidentified dead body fished out from the drainages and the missing complaints.

In November 2006, the Gurgaon police had busted a gang of Maxi-Cab killers. They had arrested nine persons (between age 18-32 years), two of them juveniles, all residents of Bhora Kalan village in Gurgaon. The police had claimed that the gang had admitted to have killed 28 persons whom they had offered lifts in their cabs during 2005-06.

A man 'Mohammad Salim Qureshi' was arrested by the police in March 2007 from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He was a key member of a gang of around 50 men who have committed more than 250 murders in Uttar Pradesh from 2004 onwards. The gangsters used stolen vehicles as maxi-cabs outside railway stations and bus stands. Gullible passengers were then made to sit in the middle while other gangsters, posing as passengers, used to occupy seats on either side. The gangsters sitting on the rear seats strangulated the passenger with a towel, dumped their bodies near highways, and decamped with valuables. Around 50 of their victims were believed to be policemen.

The maxi-cab murders are a recurring phenomenon in some north Indian states. It will appear in newspapers only when the murderers are arrested by police. Until then there are just unidentified dead bodies in drainages and piling human missing complaints in police stations.

The article is written by S. A. Deepak, Ph.D. He is an Assistant Professor of Criminology at D.G. Vaishnav College. You can read his books on serial Killers in India in the below link.

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