Men Who Received Capital Punishment in India

4. Auto Shankar:

It chilled down the country’s spine when an auto rickshaw driver was found as a serial killer. Auto Shankar, the main convict with his group had committed multiple murders between 1987 and 1988. Initially, Shankar worked as a painter and later started driving auto rickshaw, transporting illicit arrack from coastal hamlet areas between Tiruvanmiyur and Mamallapuram, to the city. His autos were also used for ‘savaaris’ of young women exploited in the burgeoning flesh trade then.But it was in the late 1988s, when nine teenage girls from Thiruvanmiyur, had gone missing in just a period of approximately six months, the investigators thought that the girls had been sold into prostitution by families unable to manage to pay for wedding dowries. But the consistent dissent by the kin forced police to hunt for other details. However, the horrendous crime came into limelight when a schoolgirl named Subalakshmi, claimed that an auto rickshaw driver had attempted to kidnap her. The cops were then aware of Shankar who was behind the crimes. Shankar used to dispose the bodies by cremating them and throwing the remains into the Bay of Bengal. During his trial Auto Shankar blamed films for "making a devil of him.” Finally, on May 31, 1991, he was sentenced to death along with two of his associates at the Salem Central prison on April 27, 1995.

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