A man accused of killing drivers and throwing their bodies into a crocodile canal is back in custody. Rajasthan Police arrested Devendra Sharma in May 2025 after he vanished during parole in 2023. Police said he was living under a false identity as a spiritual guru. His identity was confirmed through fingerprints and past records.
Sharma was born in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. He completed a Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery degree in Bihar in 1984. After graduation he ran a clinic in Rajasthan for 11 years.
In 1994 he invested around eleven lakh rupees in a gas dealership scheme. The investment turned out to be a scam. Sharma lost his savings and returned to Aligarh. He then set up a gas agency by using the name Bharat Petroleum without authorisation. During this period he came in contact with people involved in illegal activities.
Sharma began taking part in an illegal kidney transplant network. Reports stated that he facilitated more than one hundred twenty five transplants between 1998 and 2004 and earned between five lakh and seven lakh rupees per transplant. Donors were brought from Uttar Pradesh Bihar and West Bengal.
He later joined gangs involved in highway robberies. These groups targeted truck drivers and taxi drivers. Vehicles were sold in grey markets in places such as Meerut. Sharma disposed of bodies in the Hazara Canal in Kasganj where crocodiles consumed them. Sharma told investigators that he lost count after fifty killings.
In 2004 he was arrested. Courts in Delhi Rajasthan and Haryana convicted him in several murder cases and sentenced him to life imprisonment. A court in Gurugram gave him the death penalty in one case but the sentence was later changed to life imprisonment.
Sharma violated parole in 2020 and again in 2023. He remained missing until his arrest in 2025.
