'Serial killer' held for murder of 15 women

AURANGABAD: The Nanded police have arrested a 32-year-old man for the murder of 15 women over a span of one-and-a-half years in various places in Marathwada, Vidarbha and the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. The man, Aziz Khan Mohammad Pathan, killed the women with the intention of robbing them of their jewellery, the police said. He had also allegedly raped five of his victims before killingthem. Most of the women were in their 50s and 60s. Pathan was nabbed by theNanded police from his native village Rupali in Vidarbha on March 11. He will beproduced in court on Friday for an extension of his police custody. Nandedsuperintendent of police Sandeep Karnik said Pathan has confessed to not onlyhaving killed all 15 women but also attempting to kill six other women. Pathan,who is married a second time and has two children, hails from Javalgaon inNanded district but moved to Rupali a few years ago. His first wife,who was from Harsani in Nanded, had left him to live with another man. She hadalso lodged a complaint against him for dowry harassmentin 2006, for whichPathan had been arrested. At the Nanded jail where he had been lodged, Pathanmet a serial killer, Vishnu Bhanu Rathod, who had murdered 10 women bystrangulating them to death with his bare hands. Incidentally, Pathan has toldthe police that he used a rope to strangulate his victims. "Pathan has confessedto the Nanded local crime branch (LCB) that he strangulated seven women andattempted to kill six others in Nanded district alone," said inspector B N Dole."He has also confessed to the murder of three women in Hingolidistrict, one each in Parbhani and Yavatmal (Vidarbha), two in Adilabad districtand one in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh.According to Dole, Pathan was atractor driver in Waghala, Nanded. "Around one-anda-half years back, he quit thejob and took to murdering women for their jewellery and other valuables. He grewbolder as every murder he committed remained undetected. Given the similaritiesin the murders, Sandeep Bishnoi, special inspector general of police (Nandedrange), had announced an award of Rs 50,000 for anyone giving information aboutthe killer," Dole said. Pathan would target women who were alone athome or in the farms, Dole said. He would approach them asking either for aglass of water or for a job as a tractor driver or if they had seen a bullock hewould claim to have lost. Inspector M A Rauf of the Hingoli local crime branchtold TOI that Pathan was wanted for the murder of three women in the district."In December last year, he killed a 52-year-old woman in Jamgavhanvillage who was alone at home. However, a 22-year-old woman saw the murder andwas about to raise an alarm when Pathan killed her as well with a sickle. Thethird victim was a 62-year-old woman," he said. After these three murders, theHingoli police prepared a sketch of Pathan as described by people who had seenhim near the places where the murders had been committed. "We prepared thesketch on December 18. On March 11, following a tip-off that Pathan was seen inRupali village, a team of the Nanded police went there and nabbed him.