Priyanka Tiwari
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Suspense crime, Digital Desk : A Lucknow court convicted Raja Kolander (also known as Ram Niranjan) along with his brother in law, Vakshraj, to life imprisonment on 23rd May 2025 for the abduction and murder of Manoj Kumar Singh and his driver, Ravi Srivastava in the year 2000. The Additional District and Sessions Court further sentenced each of the convicts to pay a fine of ₹2.5 lakh.
Singh and srivastava were captured on the 24th of January, 2000, while driving in their Tata Sumo from Lucknow to Rewa and were last seen boarding Kolander's wife Phoolan Devi concomitating from Charbagh railway station. Their auto was devoid of all parts and discovered days later in a forest adjacent to Shankargarh in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj district.
Renewed Inquiry and Delayed Justice
After the 2001 chargesheet, little progress was made in the case for almost a decade. In 2013, fresh leads surfaced during a different murder investigation that led the police to Kolander’s farmhouse. There, authorities uncovered human skulls, a repainted Tata Sumo Phoolan Devi, and a diary detailing victim’s names along with other personal effects of the murdered men.
Confession and Modus Operandi
It was alleged that Kolander confessed to the murders stating that he thought eating the brains of his victims, especially those belonging to the Kayastha community, would make him smarter. During his lifetime, he is believed to have murdered a minimum of 14 people. Kolander, a former employee of Central Ordnance Depot, fancied himself as a feudal lord and named his offspring Adalat (court), Jamanat (bail), Andolan (protest). His wife Phoolan Devi, who was a district panchayat member, is said to have helped him sustain this sham respectability.
Preceding Crime and Media Notoriety
Kolander became infamous after a 2012 conviction in the murder case of a journalist Dhirendra Singh. The Allahabad High Court termed it as one of the “rarest of the rare” cases for its psychological terror and cold-blooded nature. The case drew worldwide attention through Netflix’s docuseries "Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer," which explored the psychological underpinning and ritualistic Kolander’s rituals.
Current Update
Following the recent ruling, both Kolander and Vakshraj have been sentenced to life imprisonment at Unnao Distict Jail. The sentences will be served concurrently, providing partial relief for the spine-chilling crime saga that plagued the state of Uttar Pradesh.
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