Kolkata

West Bengal

Stoneman case

Murshidabad

East Burdwan

: A 35-year-old man was arrested on Sunday night from's Kalna city for allegedly murdering seven women and attacking four others since 2013. The victims were mainly from Kalna and few others from Purulia and Hooghly district.This is believed to be biggest ever serial killing in West Bengal after thein Kolkata.Kamruzzaman Sarkar, who hailed from, lives with his wife and three children in a village under Nadanghat police station in Kalna for the past two years. He has been remanded to 12-day police custody.Police have found similar patterns in many of the murders as these women were strangulated to death with steel chains.police SP Bhaskar Mukherjee’s said, “In the last few months we noticed that the victims were strangulated with chains. Then the pattern changed and the victims were hit on the head after being strangulated.” This has earned him the name of ‘chain killer.’“After some time, the modus operandi changed once again and we noticed marks of sexual assault on the victims,” he added.The crime was also committed in various districts over a number of police stations in Kalna, Manteswar, Memary (in East Burdwan district), Balagarh and Pandua (in Hooghly district).“All the crimes looked similar and we became convinced that a single person was behind the crimes. We came to know after speaking with the victims that he rode a motorbike painted in red and black and carried a bag containing something heavy,” Mukherjee said. With this information at hand and artist’s impression of the accused, police launched vehicle checking on the roads.“Success came on Sunday, when some civic volunteers were checking vehicles in a village road in Kalna, spotted a bike and detained the rider. A bag containing a chain and an iron rod was found with him,” the SP added. Following marathon interrogation, Sarkar admitted his crime.“Villagers were apparently shocked to hear that the man was a murderer as they found him soft spoken and a man with ever smiling face,” police said.'Stoneman' was name of an alleged serial killer whose name had terrorised many on the streets of Kolkata in 1989. He had allegedly murdered 13 people. The first murder had taken place in June 1989. However, the cases remained unsolved and no one was arrested in connection with these murders.