India’s Most Dangerous Serial Killer: Shankaria Kanpatimar

Shankaria Kanpatimar, hanged in Jaipur Central Jail on 15 May 1979, is recorded as India’s first serial killer, having murdered nearly 70 people across Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana in just eighteen months. His crimes were committed in a shockingly brutal and methodical manner, with theft as the motive. He would enter victims’ homes naked, kill with whatever object was at hand, eat, smoke bidis, bathe, and leave only with the cash he could find—sometimes as little as two rupees. He earned the name Kanpatimar due to the striking similarity in his killings, as all his victims were struck on the temples, or kanpati in Hindi. Deeply researched and drawn from police files, FIRs, contemporary reports, and interviews, this book reconstructs both Kanpatimar’s murders and the social environment that enabled them. Told in Rakesh Goswami’s unsparing and truthful voice,