Telangana: Tantric serial killer held for alleged murder of 11 people since 2020

The arrested serial killer hailing from Telangana's Nagarkurnool was accused of luring his victims in the name of finding hidden treasures and asking them to make human sacrifices. When the victims refused to commit such crimes and demanded return of their money, the accused would taken them to isolated locations offering to do puja, poison and stone them to death.

Nagarkurnool (Telengana):The Telangana police arrested an accused in the alleged brutal murder of eleven innocent people at different places in the two Telugu states since 2020. The accused was found to be a practitioner of tantric rituals in a bid to find the remains of hidden treasures. He has been taken into custody by the Nagarkurnool police on Tuesday.

Jogulamba Gadwala Zone DIG LS Chauhan said the accused was identified as Ramati Satyanarayana, alias Sathyam Yadav (47), who was a snake and scorpion catcher hailing from Indiranagar Colony in Nagarkurnool. He used to steal money from innocent people under the false pretext that he would use tantric worship to uncover hidden treasures (Gupth Nidhi) for his victims, the officer said.

In the name of Theertham (Prashad), he used to take the victims to remote locations and threatened to use black magic and give them buffalo milk mixed with poisonous substances. He used to strike them on the head with a stone to kill them once they lost consciousness. He has killed 11 people in 8 cases since 2020, police said.

He allegedly killed four people in the Wanaparthy district's Revalli police station in 2020. He committed these crimes in the following areas- Kalvakurti, Nagarkurnool, Balaganur in Karnataka state, and the Peddavadugur range of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Notably, all the victims hail from Wanaparthy and Nagar Kurnool districts only.

The police seized eight mobile phones, ten SIM cards, five bottles containing toxic chemicals, five electrical detonators, a car, and five cell phones from the accused that belonged to the deceased. The accused is already charged for selling the same plot to two different persons. The DIG stated that they would reopen the case with the court's approval to obtain additional information from Satyam Yadav.

Based in the Vipanagandla mandal of Wanaparthy district, Venkatesh was a real estate trader who lived in Bollaram, Hyderabad. Five days were gone since Venkatesh left his home to meet Satyam Yadav in Nagarkurnool. On November 26, his worried wife Lakshmi made a complaint to the Nagarkurnool town police station, and police started an investigation.

Due to his suspicious behavior, Satyam Yadav was taken into custody, interrogated, and he eventually confessed to being responsible for the murder. Satyam Yadav, who also deals in real estate, used to provide details to other traders that he could find hidden money. Venkatesh fell into his trap and gave money to the accused.

Satyam Yadav was said to have advised Venkatesh to sacrifice three pregnant women to locate the hidden treasures. But Venkatesh became afraid. He asked for the money to be returned, saying that he did not want anything like that. In response to this, Satyam Yadav led Venkatesh to a hill outside of the city to perform puja on December 4.

Sathyam forced Venkatesh to drink chemically mixed milk in the name of Pooja. Furthermore, the accused threw acid on Venkatesh's face after he lost consciousness, the police said. The accused disclosed that he had murdered ten other people in three different states in a similar manner, the police said.