Gandhinagar

serial killer

Adalaj

Ahmedabad

Jay Momai tea stall

Residents ofdistrict are in panic mode as thewho murdered three persons in villages of the district roams freely. Recently, based on CCTV footages from near crime spots, the Gandhinagar police released a sketch of the suspect. He was identified as a eunuch by a group with whom he used to beg. However, not much has happened beyond this point. Four days ago, the police narrowly missed him when they got information that he was at a tea stall nearcrossroads. However, by the time they reached there, he had escaped.According to Gandhiangar police, the accused murdered three persons in Dantali, Koba and Shertha villages between October last year and January this year. When there was no headway in the case, Gandhinagar superintendent of police Mayur Chavda formed a special investigation team to crack it. They checked CCTV footages near the crime scenes and zeroed in on a person who was spotted at all the three places. The footage showed him wearing a long coat and cap.Based on it, the cops got a sketch of the suspect prepared. When they showed the sketch around, a group of eunuchs near one of the toll booths around, they identified him as their companion Rani. They said he used to beg along with them but had not been seen for past six months. Meanwhile, four days ago, Gandhinagar cops got information that he was present atnear Adalaj crossroads, but by the time they reached there, he had fled.Those working at the stall told police that the person had visited the stall early in the morning and asked for tea. He did not speak much, they said, adding that he had a brief conversation with one of the employees. “He perhaps asked why we sell tea for Rs 15 while it is sold elsewhere for Rs 10,” they recalled.However, according to them, he did not sound or act like a eunuch. He was wearing a cap and his face was partially covered as it was very cold the day he visited. However, when Mirror spoke to a few police officials, they said that his behaviour was like that of a eunuch. Sahdevsinh Padheriya in-charge police inspector of Adalaj police station, told Mirror, “We have been able to get access to some CCTV footages and we believe that we will be able to catch the suspect very soon.”The killer had used the same weapon to commit all the three murders. The modus operandi was the same in all the cases. He used to target victims at desolate spots and would shoot them from the back. </s> PATHANKOT, India: Six men were convicted on Monday (Jun 10) over the gang rape and murder in India of a young girl from a Muslim nomadic tribe that provoked horror and stoked inter-religious tensions.

The six men from the Jammu region of northern India escaped the death sentence, however, with three defendants given life imprisonment and the others five years in jail.



Sexual violence, including against children, is rife in India and outrage over the so-called Kathua case contributed to the government imposing the death penalty for child rapists.

According to the charge sheet, the girl was abducted while she was out grazing horses and taken to a village in Jammu, the Hindu-dominated part of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, on Jan 10 2018.



In an ordeal lasting five days, she was sedated and held in a Hindu temple, raped repeatedly over five days and then strangled and bludgeoned to death.

Investigations suggested that the girl was targeted in order to strike fear in her nomad community and drive them out of the area.

On Monday a seventh man was acquitted while an eighth person, who claims to be underage, faces a separate trial.

Among the three convicted for rape and murder and sentenced to life were village head Sanjhi Ram and special police officer Deepak Khajuria. The others were found guilty of taking bribes and destroying evidence.

Prosecutors said that they would study the verdict before deciding whether to appeal. The family, who were not present at the trial, had hoped that all six would be given the death sentences, prosecutors said.​​​​​​​



India has the death penalty for the most brutal murders and terror attacks. The last execution happened in 2015 over bombings in Mumbai in 1993.

The Kathua case sparked two days of violent protests in Jammu and demonstrations in several other places across India, including in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also drew flak after two of its members participated in rallies in support of the accused.

The protests were reminiscent of those that followed the fatal gang rape of a Delhi student on a bus in 2012 that made headlines around the world.

The Supreme Court had shifted the Kathua trial to Punjab after the girl's family and their lawyer complained of death threats.

Sexual violence, including against children, remains unabated in India. Nearly 20,000 child rape cases were reported in 2016, according to official data, while a 2014 UN report said one in three rape victims was a minor.



On Monday, hundreds of police were on duty in Pathankot for the trial. Wary of new protests, security was also heavy in Kathua town and surrounding Muslim areas. </s> Six men were convicted Monday over the notorious 2018 gang rape and murder in India of an eight-year-old girl from a Muslim nomadic tribe that provoked horror and stoked inter-religious tensions.

Sexual violence, including against children, is rife in India and outrage over the so-called Kathua case contributed to the government introducing the death penalty for child rapists.

According to the charge sheet, the girl was abducted while she was out grazing horses and taken to a village in the Kathua district of the northern Indian region of Jammu on January 10 last year.

In an ordeal lasting five days, she was sedated and held in a Hindu temple, repeatedly raped and then strangled and bludgeoned to death.

Investigations suggested that the girl was targeted in order to strike fear in her nomad community and drive them out of the area.

The six Hindu men were due to be sentenced later, prosecution lawyer Mubeen Farooqui told reporters outside a special court in Pathankot, in Punjab state.

They face the death penalty with a minimum of life imprisonment. A seventh man was acquitted while an eighth person, who claims to be underage, faces a separate trial.

"We will appeal against the convictions in a higher court," defence lawyer H.S. Pathania said.

Among the three convicted for rape and murder were village head Sanjhi Ram and special police officer Deepak Khajuria. Three others were found guilty of taking bribes and destroying evidence, but still face life imprisonment under strict conspiracy laws.

India has the death penalty for the most brutal murders and terror attacks. The last execution happened in 2015 over bombings in Mumbai in 1993.

The Kathua case sparked two days of violent protests in Jammu and demonstrations in several other places across India, including in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party also drew flak after two of its members participated in rallies in support of the accused.

The protests were reminiscent of those that followed the fatal gang rape of a Delhi student on a bus in 2012 that made headlines around the world.

The Supreme Court had shifted the Kathua trial to Punjab after the girl's family and their lawyer complained of death threats.

Sexual violence, including against children, remains unabated in India. Nearly 20,000 child rape cases were reported in 2016, according to official data, while a 2014 UN report said one in three rape victims was a minor.

Jammu and Kashmir is India's only Muslim-majority state, but the southern Jammu region -- where the rape and murder took place -- is Hindu-dominated.

On Monday hundreds of police were on duty in Pathankot for the trial. Wary of new protests, security was also heavy in Kathua town and surrounding Muslim areas. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Daniel Sandford reports on the crimes of Stephen Port, "a serial rapist who became a serial killer"

A serial killer has been found guilty of murdering four young men by poisoning them with lethal doses of a date rape drug.

Stephen Port, 41, lured his victims to his London flat and secretly gave them GHB, the Old Bailey heard.

Scotland Yard believes there could be more victims and is reviewing 58 deaths in London spanning four years involving the drug.

Port, who denied 29 charges, will be sentenced on Friday.

The chef was also found guilty of 10 offences of administering a substance with intent, four rapes and four sexual assaults.

Image copyright Stephen Port/Met Police Image caption Port presented a very different version of himself online (left) where he claimed he'd been in the navy and graduated from Oxford University

Between August 2014 and September 2015, Port murdered Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Lewisham, Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend, Kent, and Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, east London.

The jury also found him guilty of murdering Anthony Walgate, 23, from Dagenham, in June 2014 by a majority verdict.

Port met his victims on dating websites, including Grindr, and coaxed them to his home in Barking for sex before giving them fatal doses of drugs.

Their bodies were all found dumped in or near a graveyard within 500m of his house.

How did police miss killer Stephen Port?

The Metropolitan Police admitted it missed "potential opportunities" in investigating the deaths and has urged any other victims to come forward.

The force's own LGBT independent advisory group and journalists from the website Pink News had raised concerns about a serial killer being at large but were told the deaths were unconnected.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating how the force handled the initial investigation into the deaths.

Seven officers have been served with gross misconduct notices advising them their conduct is under investigation. Another 10 have been served with misconduct notices.

Cdr Stuart Cundy, from the Met, said he was personally writing to the victims' families "to express our sincere condolences".

Image copyright PA Image caption Port murdered the men at his flat in Barking, east London, before dumping their bodies in and around a nearby graveyard

Port was found not guilty of three rapes relating to two living complainants.

The trial had heard he had an insatiable appetite for boyish-looking, smaller men, who he referred to as "Twinks".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In a police interview in 2015, Port tried to implicate Daniel Whitworth in the death of Gabriel Kovari

The Old Bailey was also told he trawled the internet for pornography involving impassive young men being "raped" by older men.

Home videos were played to the jury of 10 women and two men which appeared to show Port allegedly enacting his drug-rape obsession.

At court: Danny Shaw - BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

As the 12 jurors took their seats, there was an almost palpable sense of tension.

Every day since Monday of last week, when the jury's deliberations began, relatives of Port's victims have gathered waiting for the outcome of this harrowing case.

At 10:35, the jury forewoman was asked whether they'd reached unanimous verdicts on each of the counts and, if so, what that verdict was.

When the first reply of "guilty" came back Port just sighed.

But to his right, there were sobs, tears and hugs among the parents and siblings of those who were murdered.

The murders

Image copyright Met Police Image caption Anthony Walgate (left) and Gabriel Kovari were Port's first victims

Anthony Walgate occasionally worked as a male escort and met Port when he offered the 23-year-old student £800 for an overnight date.

Mr Walgate had told a friend about the date "in case I get killed" but was found dead outside Port's flat on 19 June 2014.

Port later admitted he had "panicked" over the death and was jailed for perverting the course of justice, but he continued to claim Mr Walgate died from taking his own drugs.

Image copyright Met Police Image caption Daniel Whitworth (L) was murdered a year before Jack Taylor (R) died

Gabriel Kovari was staying with Port as a temporary flatmate when he was killed in August 2014.

Port called his sister to confess he had his body in his bed then dragged the 22-year-old to a nearby graveyard.

He then constructed a web of deceit to divert suspicion, telling his neighbour that Mr Kovari had died of an infection in Spain.

Port also invented a Facebook identity via which he told the Slovakian's boyfriend Mr Kovari had gone to a sex party with a man named "Dan".

Image copyright Met Police Image caption The suicide note, written by Port, sought to absolve him of any part in Mr Whitworth's death

The same dog walker who found Mr Kovari's body also found Daniel Whitworth dead in the same spot in the churchyard and "lying in the exact same position" three weeks later.

A fake suicide note was found in his hand which purported to be a confession by Mr Whitworth for Mr Kovari's death.

It was later found to have been written by Port but at the time of Mr Whitworth's death police had treated his demise "at face value".

Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Kovari and Mr Whitworth's bodies were found in the graveyard of St Margaret's Church

Jack Taylor died on 13 September 2015, hours after meeting with Port. The pair had earlier shared a conversation on Grindr.

Following his murder, Port disposed of Mr Taylor's mobile phone and deleted their communication on the dating app.

His body was found by a refuse collector with a needle and syringe in his pocket.

Image copyright AFP/NIKLAS HALLE'N Image caption Jack Taylor's family gave their reaction to Port's conviction at the Old Bailey

Speaking outside court following the verdicts, Daniel Whitworth's family said they were still "bereft at the loss of a such a clever, talented and much-loved boy".

His step-mother, Mandy Pearson, said the guilty verdict "has marked the end of a large part of our battle" but the family "have yet to concentrate on other areas of accountability".

"The fight goes on until all our questions are answered," she said.

Jack Taylor's family said they felt he would still be alive if the police "had done their job".

"The police should be held accountable for Jack's death. We do understand it's not them who took Jack's life but Stephen Port would have been stopped," they said.

Image copyright AFP/ NIKLAS HALLE'N Image caption Mr Whitworth's family made only passing reference to the initial police probe of his death

Police believe there are many other victims and have urged people to come forward.

As Port used a variety of social networks and dating apps to meet men, the Met has released a list of his account details in a bid to aid any other possible victims. </s> Indian Punjab Police personnel escort a police vehicle carrying the seven accused on June 10, 2019. Six of them were convicted while one was found not guilty.

PATHANKOT, India - An Indian court on Monday (June 10) convicted six men of involvement in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in India's Jammu and Kashmir state last year, said a prosecution lawyer.

The case sparked outrage and criticism of the country's ruling party after some of its members opposed charges being laid.

The girl, from a nomadic Muslim community that roams the forests of Kashmir, was drugged, held captive in a temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered to death with a stone in January 2018.

The abduction, rape and killing of the child was part of a plan to remove the minority nomadic community from the area, the 15-page charge sheet said.

Among those accused were a Hindu priest and police officers, fanning communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the area.

"This is a victory of truth," prosecution lawyer M. Farooqi told reporters outside the court. "The girl and her family has got justice today. We are satisfied with the judgment."

The prosecution was seeking the death penalty for three men - priest Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar - who were convicted of rape and murder, he said.

The three others, Surinder Kumar, Tilak Raj and Anand Dutta, were convicted of lesser crimes of destroying evidence. A lawyer leading the legal team representing the accused, Mr AK Sawhney, told reporters they planned to appeal the verdict. The case shocked India, which has an appalling record for violence against women and girls, and led to the introduction of the death penalty for rapists of girls below the age of 12. The trial, held in private, began over a year ago in Pathankot, a town about 70km from Rasana village in Kathua district, where the incident happened, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. India's Supreme Court shifted the trial to the neighbouring state of Punjab after the girl's family and lawyer said they faced death threats, and local lawyers and Hindu politicians, including some from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, held protests against police filing charges in court. India has long been plagued by violence against women and children. Reported rapes climbed 60 per cent to 40,000 from 2012 to 2016, according to government statistics, and many more go unreported, especially in rural areas. In total, there are eight people accused of involvement in the case. The seventh man, named as Vishal, was found not guilty on Monday, Mr Farooqi said, while the eighth, a juvenile, is currently awaiting trial. </s> LAHORE, Pakistan — A serial killer may have been behind the rape and murder of young girl in Pakistan whose killing sparked deadly clashes between protesters and police, an official said Saturday.

Rana Sanaullah, the home minister for Punjab province, said DNA testing has linked the killing to at least five other cases of child abuse and murder in the city of Kasur. Police have detained eight suspects, including two relatives of the girl.

Eight-year-old Zainab Ansari went missing last week while heading to a nearby home for Quranic studies. The discovery of her body, which was found in a garbage bin Tuesday, ignited clashes between residents and police that killed two people and wounded three others.

The residents say the authorities were slow to respond to the girl’s disappearance, charges denied by police.

The city appeared calm but tense on Saturday after three days of clashes. Businesses reopened, but police and paramilitary troops were still out in force and guarding government buildings.

Sanaullah expressed hope for a breakthrough, saying new footage from surveillance cameras showed a man with a thin beard, who resembles police sketches of the suspect, walking near Ansari’s house. He said the head of the investigation was replaced by another seasoned officer following complaints by the victim’s father. </s> NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday upheld death sentences against four men who fatally gang raped a woman on board a bus in 2012, a crime that sparked widespread protests and drew international attention to violence against women.

A.P. Singh (C), a lawyer representing three of the four men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in 2012, talks to media after the court hearing in New Delhi, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Applause broke out in court among relatives of the victim - whose identity is protected by law - as judges explained the crime met the “rarest of the rare” standard required to justify capital punishment in India.

“It’s a barbaric crime and it has shaken the society’s conscience,” Justice R. Banumathi said, as a three-judge Supreme Court panel threw out an appeal on behalf of the defendants.

The five men and a juvenile lured the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend on to a bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16, 2012, before repeatedly raping the woman and beating both with a metal bar and dumping them on a road.

The woman died of internal injuries nearly two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

“I am very satisfied. Today I am happy,” the victim’s mother said outside the courthouse.

Her father said: “It’s not just a victory for my family, it’s a victory for each and every woman in our country.”

Four of the attackers were sentenced to death 2013 while the fifth hanged himself in prison during the original seven-month trial. That verdict was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2014.

The four - gym instructor Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Thakur, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta and unemployed Mukesh Singh - then appealed to the Supreme Court. The defendants were not in court on Friday.

‘RAPE EPIDEMIC’

The crime sparked large-scale protests and led thousands of women across India to break their silence over sexual violence that often goes unreported.

It also shone a spotlight on what women’s groups call a rape epidemic in the country. In 2015, police registered more than 34,000 rape complaints and 84,000 women filed sexual harassment cases, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Authorities have stiffened penalties against sex crimes, introduced fast-track trials in rape cases and made stalking a crime.

A.P. Singh, a lawyer representing three of the condemned men, said justice had not been done. He vowed to file a review petition to the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The last recourse of the convicts, all of whom are now in their twenties, would be to seek clemency from President Pranab Mukherjee.

The sixth defendant, a minor accused of pulling out part of the woman’s intestines with his own hand, was sent to a reform home for three years and has since been released.

CAPITAL CONTROVERSY

Despite the toughening of the laws, debate continues over whether they serve as a sufficient deterrent.

On average, 50 crimes against women are registered every day by police in Delhi, including at least four cases of rape, according to a senior official in the federal home ministry.

Opponents of capital punishment argue that public and media pressure swayed the judges in the Delhi gang rape case to impose the death penalty, adding to the hundreds of already waiting on death row in India.

A.P. Singh (C), a lawyer representing three of the four men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in 2012, talks to media after the court hearing in New Delhi, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

“There are many cases of rape and murder where death sentences were not ordered. It can’t be subjective,” said Seema Misra, a lawyer who has worked extensively on cases involving women.

More than 400 people are known to have been sentenced to death in India, according to a tally by Amnesty International, with 136 being condemned in 2016.

The last rapist to be executed in India was Dhananjoy Chatterjee, on Aug. 14, 2004. He was hanged at Alipore Central Jail in West Bengal, on his 42nd birthday, for raping and murdering a teenage girl. </s> Two more men were beaten to death by mobs in India's northeastern state of Assam on suspicions of that they kidnapped children, in the latest of several killings fueled by social media rumors, police said Saturday.

The men from state capital Guwahati were traveling on holiday in the remote Karbi Anglong district late Friday night when they were confronted by a mob of some 300 villagers.

"The villagers, [who] suspected them to be child lifters, surrounded their SUV, dragged them out and started thrashing them," district police chief, V Siva Prasad Ganjala, said by phone. "One died on the scene, the other succumbed to his injuries later."

Footage of the lynching - captured by locals on their mobiles - shows the two men, aged between 25 to 30 years - pleading with their attackers to let them go and insisting that they were not criminals.

Ganjala said there had been no incidents of kidnapping or child trafficking in the area, but rumors that kidnappers were operating in the region had circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook in recent days.

Police registered a case of murder but had so far made no arrests.

Friday's killings came after six people were lynched by mobs in distant southern India last month following similar rumors about "child kidnapping gangs."

Police urged people against falling prey to rumors after a 52-year-old transgender woman was beaten to death in the southern city of Hyderabad at the end of May. She was also suspected child kidnapping.

A 42-year-old man was beaten to death in Nizamabad district, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Hyderabad, after a mob accused him as well of being a child kidnapper.

Authorities said the false messages that were being spread widely had led to mass panic, with mobs attacking beggars and strangers.

A dozen people have been arrested for circulating the videos, which show men hoisting a child from outside a home and mutilating an infant.

Police said most of the victims were not from the localities where they were killed. </s> A massive fire engulfed a hotel in central Delhi's congested Karol Bagh area in the early hours of Tuesday, killing 17 people, including two people who jumped off the building in a desperate bid to save themselves, officials said.

IMAGE: A view of charred remains on the rooftop of Karol Bagh's Hotel Arpit Palace where a massive fire broke out, in New Delhi.

The deceased included three Myanmar nationals and an Indian Revenue Service officer, Suresh Kumar, 52.

Two staffers of hotel Arpit Palace also died. Kumar and the hotel cook, Tara Chand, jumped off the building in a desperate bid to escape but died.

A 33-year-old Myanmar national, Chan Chan, also jumped off the over 25-year-old structure but survived with a fracture in her leg.

Prime facie, the cause of the fire was suspected to be a short-circuit, the police and fire officials said.

According to hospital authorities at least four others were injured. However, the police said only one other person was injured.

The police said that out of 17 people killed, 15 have been identified. Autopsy was conducted on five bodies which were handed over to their families. Initially, the fire officials said a child had died in the blaze but later the police said it was the body of an adult male victim which had charred and shrunk beyond recognition.

IMAGE: A massive fire broke out at Hotel Arpit Palace in Delhi's Karol Bagh.

According to a statement issued by the Kerala government, three of the deceased belonged to the state and three others were from Tamil Nadu.

The police said one victim belonged to Gujarat.

In a late evening development, the police arrested hotel's general manager Rajender and manager Vikas on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

"A case has been registered against the two and the hotel owner who is absconding since the incident," DCP (Central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa told reporters.

According to the fire department, they received a call at around 4.35 am about the incident following which 24 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

It took nearly four hours for them to douse the fire that had swept through all the floors of the five-storey building which had a terrace kitchen in violation of rules. Flames resurfaced by noon, but were later doused.

Dilip Trivedi, 58, a resident of Ahmedabad who came to Delhi for a business deal, had a miraculous escape.

"At around 4 am, I heard cries of people shouting for help. When I opened my door, I saw very dense smoke in the corridor area. Then I took my bag and rushed downstairs," said Trivedi who was occupying a room on the first floor of the hotel.

IMAGE: A massive fire breaks out in Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh area in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Bhupendra Rajput, an eyewitness who helped in rescue operation, said, "We were inside my room at a hotel nearby the incident happened. People were shouting for help and we immediately rushed to the spot."

Different agencies pointed out several violations on the part of the hotel's management, including closure of the emergency exit gates at the time of fire, which trapped the victims inside the establishment.

The hotel was first granted a licence in October 2005 and was renewed every year. The last renewal was done on May 25, 2018 and was valid till March 31, said an official of North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

IMAGE: According to eyewitnesses, most deaths were caused due to suffocation.

"The stamped happened as the stairs were narrow. We pulled them out and helped clear the way for other," Rajput said.

The roads were blocked near the spot due to which the fire tenders took time to reach there. The first tender that reached the spot did not have adequate water. If that fire tender had enough water, it would have taken less time to control it, Rajput added.

Several politicians, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sheila Dikshit and state Bharatiya Janata Party president Manoj Tiwari, visited the spot to take the stock of the situation.

IMAGE: A fireman looks out of a window of the hotel where a fire broke out in New Delhi.

According to Alphons, the emergency exit of the hotel was 'too narrow' and also locked.

The Delhi government ordered a magisterial probe into the incident and announced Rs 5 lakh for the next of those killed in the fire.

IMAGE: NDRF and police officials investigate after a massive fire broke out at Karol Bagh's Arpit Palace hotel.

Following the incident, the Aam Aadmi Party government also cancelled an event that was to be held on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the AAP dispensation.

'Deeply saddened by the loss of lives due to a fire at Karol Bagh in Delhi. I convey my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives,' he tweeted.

WATCH: Fire occurred due to ducting which spread to hotel rooms: Balan Mani, VP, Delhi Hotel Association

The hotel had a canopy on its terrace with chairs and tables laid out, indicating that there was an open restaurant operating there, fire officials said, adding that there was wooden panelling in the rooms that could have helped the fire spread.

It was a nightmare without end, said Somshekhar, who had come to Delhi from Kerala with his family to attend a wedding Ghaziabad and was staying in the hotel.

He lost three members of his family.

IMAGE: Survivors leave with their belongings from Karol Baghs Hotel Arpit Palace.

They were residents of Ernakulam district in Kerala and were getting ready to go to Haridwar when the fire started.

"Ten of us were rescued by police and fire teams. We had booked four rooms in the hotel. We were all ready early morning to go to Haridwar when suddenly there was a power cut. They switched on the generator and there was a heavy smoke," he said.

IMAGE: A woman cries as she cannot find her relative who was staying in the hotel where the fire broke out.

His sister Jayashree alerted them to the smoke and rushed out to check what was happening, he said. She was later found dead.

IMAGE: Family members of the victims who died during Hotel Arpit Palace fire accident, wait outside the mortuary at RML hospital in New Delhi.

"The entire pathway was full of smoke. My mother and brother were along with my sister at the time.

"I immediately came to the room and opened the room for fresh air and we managed to escape. We were at the second floor of the hotel," he said.
Three people are killed in Gandhinagar, India, by a serial killer. The alleged killer, who is later identified as a eunuch, remains at large.