In an ashram in Rajasthan’s Dausa, 67-year-old Devender Sharma was living a life as a priest. On Sunday evening, Delhi Police crime branch officers apprehended him. Because the man in saffron robe was a convicted serial killer; with a criminal history involving at least 27 cases of murder, kidnapping, and robbery, who had vanished after being granted parole in August 2023.

Once known for running a kidney transplant racket, Sharma later became infamous for murdering taxi and truck drivers, dumping their bodies in crocodile-infested canals, and selling their vehicles in the grey market.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Aditya Gautam said, “Dr Devendra Sharma has been involved in many murder cases, due to which he became famously known as ‘Doctor Death’. His involvement has been found in about 26-27 cases so far, and he has already been convicted in 6-7 cases, in which he has been sentenced to life imprisonment and in 1 case he has also been awarded death penalty.”

The police said that since 1998, Sharma has been found involved in an illegal kidney transplant racket.

“He and his gang used to target taxi drivers and truck drivers. They used to murder them and steal their cars. The cars were later sold in the grey market, and the bodies of the drivers were disposed of at such a place from where they could not be recovered like rivers and ponds. Devendra Sharma facilitated a kidney transplant racket, and he would find and bring the donors from UP, Bihar and West Bengal,” Gautam added.

Sharma’s crimes date back nearly three decades. In 1994, after losing Rs 11 lakh in a failed attempt to secure a gas dealership, Sharma returned to Aligarh and began running a fake gas agency. According to police, he soon started targeting truck drivers transporting gas cylinders.

Between 1998 and 2004, Sharma facilitated over 125 illegal kidney transplants, operating across Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan, working with other doctors and middlemen.

Each transplant reportedly earned him Rs 5 to 7 lakh.

Between 2002 and 2004, Sharma and his gang lured taxi drivers with fake trips, murdered them, and sold the stolen vehicles. The bodies were dumped in the Hazara Canal in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district, known for its crocodile population.

Sharma was arrested in 2004 and later convicted in seven murder cases across Delhi, Rajasthan, and Haryana. A court in Gurugram sentenced him to death in one case.

According to police, Sharma admitted to killing over 50 people. But the bodies could never be recovered; so courts could only convict him in a limited number of cases.

“Sharma had jumped parole in August 2023 while serving his sentence at Tihar Jail and had been on the run since. The crime branch was tasked to search for him.

An operation to nab him spanned several cities, including Aligarh, Jaipur, Delhi, Agra, and Prayagraj. “The team tracked him to an ashram in Dausa, where he was posing as a spiritual man under a false identity,” said the DCP. “The team camped there and met the accused, pretending to be a follower, and kept a watch to make sure that he was indeed Dr Devender. Upon apprehension, the accused admitted to his criminal past and said he had jumped parole, intending to never return to jail.”

But this was not Sharma’s first escape.

In January 2020, he was released from Jaipur Central Jail on parole and didn’t return. A few months later, Delhi Police tracked him to Baprola, where he was living with his second wife and running a property business. He was caught trying to sell a disputed property in Connaught Place and sent to Tihar Jail.

In June 2023, Sharma was again granted parole. This time, he disappeared after August 3.

Before his criminal ventures escalated, Sharma practiced medicine for 11 years at the Janta Clinic in Bandikui, Rajasthan.