Former cop-turned-serial rapist-killer gets death term

September 11th, 2009 ALLAHABAD - The Allahabad High Court on Friday acquitted Nithari serial killer M S Pandher for the murder of Rimpa Halder, a woman who among the 19 people was killed at the businessman's home. A special court had in February convicted Pandher for Halder's murder.

July 6th, 2009 SC sheriff: Deputies searching for killer of 5GAFFNEY, S.C. — A South Carolina sheriff says deputies are searching to find the man they believe has killed five people in a week.

May 14th, 2009 Noted Catholic theologian dies at 68TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Monsignor William A.

May 1st, 2009 LOS ANGELES - Police in Los Angeles identified a 72-year-old man as the city's worst serial killer, charging him with two murders in 1972 and 1976 and linking him with 25 others. Police Thursday said that DNA matching John Floyd Thomas Jr, an insurance adjuster, was found at three other murder scenes from the 1970s and 1980s and that detectives were examining his connection to other cases linked to the notorious Westside Rapist.

March 4th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The entry of his old foe in the ring once again does not scare yesteryear's super criminal Charles Sobhraj, who says he is ready to take on Bollywood, with or without the diplomat-turned-consultant who has hounded him for years. 'It is just a gimmick,' said the 64-year-old's lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, dismissing reports that Bollywood filmmaker Prawaal Raman is signing up former Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg as a consultant for his upcoming film 'Charles and I', which is speculated to be based on the past life of Sobhraj.

March 3rd, 2009 SINGAPORE - A Singapore court sentenced a serial predator and rapist to 42 years in jail Tuesday, the longest prison sentence handed down to a sexual offender in the city state so far, a news report said. Bala Kuppusamy was also ordered to be caned the maximum fine of 24 strokes.

February 13th, 2009 GUWAHATI - Police in Assam are in a quandary with a mysterious 'stone man' claiming his sixth victim - a pavement dweller - in less than two months in the state's main city of Guwahati, officials said Saturday. Even as a thriller based on the unsolved serial killings of pavement dwellers in Mumbai in 1983 hit the screens Friday, the police recovered a badly battered body of a young beggar from outside a Hindu temple in Guwahati.

February 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Punjab businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli, who were given the death sentence Friday for raping, killing and cannibalizing Rimpa Haldar - the first among the 19 cases registered against them - may well figure in the infamous list of serial killers who gained notoriety for the methods they employed. Of all the famous killers Harold Frederick 'Fred' Shipman, a British general practitioner, was perhaps the most prolific known serial killer in history, with 236 murders being ascribed to him by a government inquiry.

January 31st, 2009 HONG KONG - Police in Hong Kong were Sunday investigating whether a serial killer is behind the murders of three prostitutes in three weeks. The latest victim, a 38-year-old Thai prostitute, was found murdered in the flat where she worked in the city's Kowloon district Saturday night.

January 20th, 2009 WELLINGTON - A rapist who was driven to Auckland police station by his victim after he fell asleep in his car has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years, news reports said Wednesday. Vipul Romik Sharma, 22, was found guilty of rape and kidnapping at a trial in November.

January 10th, 2009 Film: 'Anu'; Cast: Pooja Gandhi, Baalu, Naag Kiran, Sundar Raj, Duniya Rashmi, Ramesh Bhat and others. Director: Shiva Ganapathy; Story-Screenplay: Ravi Babu; Producer: Baalu; Camera: Niranjan Babu; Music: Shekhar Chandru; Rating: *** 'Anu' is a Kannada remake of director Ravi Babu's Telugu Hit film 'Anasuya', which had Bhoomika Chawla in the lead.

January 1st, 2009 GUWAHATI - The death toll in the serial bombings in India's northeastern state of Assam has risen to six with one person succumbing to his injuries overnight, officials said here Friday. 'The death toll so far is six, with one of the injured succumbing to his injuries at a hospital,' Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam government spokesperson and health minister, told IANS.

December 31st, 2008 GUWAHATI - At least 15 people were injured as serial bomb blasts rocked Assam's main city of Guwahati Thursday. One blast occurred in a crowded market at Bhutnath area in the city, injuring six people, and two more blasts took place on a roadside near Birubari area.

December 31st, 2008 MUMBAI - A court here Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment a notorious serial killer who had earned the nickname 'Beer man' for leaving an empty beer can beside all his roadside victims, whom he killed by clubbing and stabbing. Ravindra Kantrole was Thursday sentenced for the murder of a man on a foot-overbridge in Marine Lines railway station two years ago, his lawyer said.

December 31st, 2008 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday condemned the Assam serial blasts and said the government was committed to rooting out terrorism. 'The government would stay steadfast in its determination to root out terrorism and the measures taken recently in this direction would be taken to their logical conclusion,' Singh said in a statement.