Truth, blood and broken systems: 5 true-crime books that explore India's darkest cases
These stories exposes what lies under sensationalism. Fractured institutions and the psychological complexities of both victims and perpetrators. Here are five meticulously crafted accounts that go beyond the crime to examine the conditions that allowed them to occur.
A teenage girl found dead in her own home. A second body discovered on the terrace. And then, a storm of media speculation, botched investigations and courtroom drama that continues to haunt India still. Aarushi is a meticulous and unflinching account of the 2008 Noida double murder of 14 year old Aarushi Talwar and her house helper, Hemraj. From the fumbling local police to the sensationalist media coverage and the Central Bureau of Investigation's contradictory theories. Avirook Sen exposes the cracks in the investigation, missing evidence, coerced confessions and trial by media, that turned a tragedy into a national spectacle. This is not a whodunit. It's a look at what happens when institutions designed to deliver justice begin to crumble.
The 1925 Bawla murder case. A high society scandal involving princes, prostitutes and political intrigue. This little known but landmark case documents the attempted assassination of a courtesan, Mumtaz, by none other than Prince Inayat of the princely state of Indore. As the bullets missed her and killed her bodyguard instead, the fallout became a media circus in British India. It rattled the foundations of royal immunity. With a meticulous mix of courtroom drama and colonial context, this case raised questions about power, privilege and justice long before independence.
In December 2007, a sleepy town in Kerala woke up to the country's most cinematic bank robbery. Using a fake identity and a rented shop, a gang of thieves drilled a hole from a nearby room into the vault of the South Malabar Gramin Bank, escaping with Rs. 80 million in cash and gold. The Chelembra heist was India's closest real-life case to Ocean's Eleven, only without the Hollywood gloss. This book breaks down the precision and planning behind the crime and also reveals how a combination of flawed assumptions and brilliant policing eventually brought the culprits to justice. It's a pulse pounding account of ambition, deception and the allure of the perfect crime.
Meenal Baghel's investigative reportage on the Neeraj Grover murder case where aspiring actress Maria Susairaj and her boyfriend Emile Jerome Mathew were convicted. It is a chilling portrait of love, jealousy and dismemberment in India. What makes Death in Mumbai unforgettable is how it unpacks the toxic underbelly of aspiration in the entertainment industry. Baghel showed the deep moral ambiguities and societal voyeurism that came with it. The book is a perfect example of how class, media portrayal and sexual politics intersected in a brutal, almost surreal murder that continues to fascinate and repulse even today.
India's roads are treacherous, not just for accidents, but for serial killers. The Highway Murders brings to light a horrifying pattern of killings along Tamil Nadu's highways, where at least 13 women were raped and murdered over several years. What went unnoticed as isolated crimes was, in fact, a chilling serial pattern, cracked only through forensic breakthroughs and dogged police work. The book paints a disturbing picture of how vulnerable people, especially women become targets in liminal spaces, and how India's law enforcement often fails to connect the dots. It's a story of anonymity and the dark spaces between streetlights.
(The writer is an intern with indianexpress.com)
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