Mumbai, Feb. 15: They prowled the streets in the dead of the night with murder on their minds.

Before Ravindra Kantrole, Mumbai had had its brush with at least two serial killers.

Raman Raghav had spread a reign of terror in the ’60s, bludgeoning sleeping pavement dwellers to death.

At least 19 attacks were reported from the eastern suburbs of Mumbai in 1965-66, in which nine people died. Raghav was so swift that those who survived could not catch a glimpse of his face and give the police concrete leads.

He landed in the police net when he was found moving suspiciously in the area. But Raghav was let off for lack of evidence.

He struck again in 1968 — this time, in the central suburb of Ghatkopar, and Jogeshwari and Andheri in the west.

The police increased surveillance, and formed a special squad to trace the man.

In August that year, Raghav was arrested after sub-inspector Alex Fialho spotted the tall, dark and well-built man in a bloodstained bush shirt and khaki shorts. His fingerprints gave him away.

Suspected of 42 murders, Raghav was formally charged with two. He revealed he had improvised an iron bar, creating a sharp and protruding edge, to attack his victims.

He was sentenced to death, but it was reduced to life imprisonment after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Raghav was lodged at Yerawada Jail in Pune where he died of a kidney ailment in 1988.

Doctors and psychiatrists who had interviewed Raghav said he was in the habit of stealing since childhood and had always been a recluse.

As Raghav was awaiting death behind bars, another serial killer had struck on Mumbai’s streets. The Stone Man, too, picked on pavement sleepers and battered their skulls. He was never caught but the killings stopped in 1987.

Asked why the city has witnessed the emergence of psychopaths, psychiatrist Harish Shetty said: “Mumbai has a vast population, money, and provides anonymity easily. As anonymity increases in a globalised world, crimes like serial killings are bound to increase. Serial killings have been reported from Chennai, Calcutta and Punjab as well.”

Writer-director Sriram Raghavan, who directed a 45-minute film called Raman Raghav, said investigator Ramakant Kulkarni’s book Cops, Crimes and Criminals was the driving force.

“I met Raghav’s psychiatrist who told me, ‘don’t portray him as a criminal. He was mentally ill’. He said he did not really know what he was doing and this aspect of the character really interested me,” he recalled.

“Raghav wore a blue bush shirt and khaki shorts with canvas shoes, similar to the milk delivery men of Parsi Dairy in those days. He told doctors who interviewed him that he heard the voice of God before he killed someone.”