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Delhi's shame

Kumar's own career as a criminal took off shortly after Pandher and Kohli were nabbed for their cannibalism exploits.

New Delhi's latest murderer, rapist and sodomiser, necrophiliac, and cleaner of buses, Ravinder Kumar, 24, has been luring children to their deaths since 2008. Offer them a toffee and kill them in a field has been his favoured method. When asked by a television reporter if he considers himself human, he doesn't demur: no sir, he does not. Kumar addresses male reporters who have interviewed him on camera as 'Sir'. Has he heard about the Nithari killer? Yes, sir. What has he heard? That he used to kill little children and eat their meat. Kumar's own career as a criminal took off shortly after Pandher and Kohli were nabbed for their cannibalism exploits.
Kumar could be brushed off as regular, non-threatening, an everyday "type". He's polite even! - all that 'sir' usage, but, BUT for his CV of non-petty crimes and consequent cloth bags with eye-holes over his face. In one photograph, a cop has his hands chained - handcuffed and chained.
'Type' is another English-ism Kumar bandies about in his casual telling of his crimes. He picked up kids from "jhuggi type" areas (slum dwellings), construction sites, and neighbourhoods of his mausi (aunt). His telling is straightforward. He doesn't fidget. He doesn't wring his hands. The narrative goes, first I lured them, then I took them here, then to keep them from crying and telling on me, I killed them, and then I did the wrong deed - "galat kaam", he says, the euphemism for rape.
On camera he seems relaxed when narrating the litany of his crimes. He counts off venues of his crimes in an almost disinterested manner. Nothing shifty about his posture, nothing repentant about his words, no remorse expressed. The man could just as easily have been narrating how to make a sandwich. First do this, then do this, then add this.
He first committed the crime at the age of 19. The serial rapist and killer, who was arrested on July 19, has admitted to killing and sexually assaulting at least 15 children since 2008. That figure is now 30.
No doubt for a short while we're going to talk about this in drawing rooms and at water coolers; where we've failed as a society, and how as a people, yet again, humanity has failed us - or more likely still, how one of us has failed humanity.