Midnight fury

The exact sequence of events or the order of killings remains unclear as there were no eyewitnesses to the six murders, police said. But the first of the six bodies was discovered around 2.30am.

A passerby made a call to the police after noticing the bloodied body of a guard, 35-year-old Munshi Ram, by the roadside in Moti Colony. “We had barely moved him to a hospital when we received a call about another body in Palwal Hospital, barely 100 metres from where the first body was found,” said an investigator.

At the hospital, Dhankar killed Anjum, a 30-year-old woman who was attending to her sister-inlaw. The woman was sleeping on a bench outside the ICU.

CCTV footage captured at 2.34am showed Dhankar, armed with an iron rod, walking into the lobby of the hospital, a private healthcare centre located around a kilometre from where his wife’s parents live. Afraid that a serial killer was on the loose, police circulated the suspect’s visuals and launched a manhunt.

As the police searched for the killer, they stumbled upon more bodies. One was of an unidentified man, found outside the walls of the Palwal City police station; the other of a 43-year-old guard, Shiv Nath, found outside a restaurant across the police station.

The fifth victim, too, was a guard -- 52-year-old Seeta Ram. He was killed 200 metres from the police station, outside the shop of a scrap dealer who had hired him. The sixth victim, Khemchand, 46, was found at Rasulpur Chowk.

Police said Dhankar’s run came to an end when Vikal, his in-laws’ neighbour, alerted the police after narrowly escaping death. “The police had to tie him up before taking him away,” said Vikal, who was injured while fending Dhankar off.