Mumbai's notorious 'Beer Killer' gets life term

Mumbai, Jan 1: 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.

He had been arrested by Mumbai Police for three of the seven murders that took place at close intervals in different parts of Mumbai during 2006-07.

Kantrole was charged in three cases but acquitted in two by the trial court last year. He has also been slapped with a fine of Rs.2,000 by the court, advocate S. Kunjuraman, who appeared for Kantrole in the Sewri court, told IANS.

Kantrole became known as 'Beer Man' and 'Beer Killer' since all the killings followed a certain pattern and a beer can was recovered near the victims' bodies.

All the victims were in their 20s or 30s, and were repeatedly stabbed to death, and were all poor pavement dwellers. Some were also drug addicts. After each murder, the killer left his 'signature' - an empty can of beer next to the victim's body.

Following an uproar, Mumbai Police got into the act and managed to trace out Kantrole, a former gangster with the Ashwin Naik gang. However, since he became addicted to drugs and alcohol, the gang threw him out and he roamed the streets for Mumbai for a living.

The police arrested him when he was taking alms and food distributed near a mosque in south Mumbai.

In his confessional, he said that he "loved" to see blood and hammer his victims with heavy sticks. When they fell unconscious, he would stab them. Kantrole also said that he targeted the homeless and nameless pavement dwellers as they did not attract much public attention.