'I ate brains for ...': 25 years later, UP serial killer Kolander convicted in chilling double murder case

Kolander and his brother-in-law, Vakshraj, were found guilty in the abduction and murder of Manoj Kumar Singh and his driver, Ravi Srivastava, in January 2000

A Lucknow court, on Friday, granted a second life sentence to convicted serial killer Ram Niranjan, alias Raja Kolander, in a 25-year-old double murder case that had remained unresolved for decades.

Kolander and his brother-in-law, Vakshraj, were found guilty in the abduction and murder of Manoj Kumar Singh and his driver, Ravi Srivastava, in January 2000, as per a News18 report.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 2.5 lakh each by the Additional District and Sessions Court in Lucknow.

According to UP police, Singh and Srivastava were last seen on January 24, 2000, travelling from Lucknow to Rewa in a Tata Sumo. They had picked up Kolander’s wife, Phoolan Devi, as a passenger from Charbagh railway station, allegedly unaware that they were being lured into a trap, it has been learnt from the News18 report.

A few days later, their naked and dismembered bodies were found in a forest near Shankargarh in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj district.

The case, however, made little progress over the next decade despite a chargesheet being filed in 2001.

Over a decade later, the investigation gained momentum in 2013, after fresh leads were discovered during a separate murder probe.

The decapitated body of journalist Dhirendra Singh, found in 2000, unearthed fresh developments in this heinous murder case, further states the report.

The police were gradually led to Kolander’s farmhouse during the probe, where they found a disturbing collection of preserved human skulls, a diary listing names of victims, and several belongings of the murdered men, including the repainted Tata Sumo bearing a sticker marked “Phoolan Devi.”

Kolander allegedly confessed to the crimes, telling police that he believed consuming the brains of his victims, especially those from the Kayastha community, would enhance his intelligence.

He is believed to have murdered at least 14 people.

Kolander, a former Central Ordnance Depot employee, projected himself as a feudal lord. He named his children Adalat (court), Jamanat (bail), and Andolan (protest), and reportedly used his wife’s political influence as she served as a district panchayat member to build a façade of respectability, according to the News18 report.

According to the police, however, Kolander was obsessed with power, superstition, and ritualistic killings.

Kolander maintained his innocence in court, claiming he was a victim of a political conspiracy. However, forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts did not support his claims.

Kolander was first convicted in 2012 for the murder of journalist Dhirendra Singh, a case the Allahabad High Court described as “rarest of the rare” due to its cold-blooded nature and psychological terror.

With Friday’s verdict, both Kolander and Vakshraj will continue to serve their life terms at Unnao District Jail.

The sentences will run concurrently.

The case gained international attention and was featured in Netflix’s docuseries Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer, which explored the psychological depths and ritualistic elements of Kolander’s crimes.

The verdict brings partial closure to one of the most disturbing crime sagas in Uttar Pradesh’s history.