Serial Killer 'Hercules' on Bangladesh Police radar after alleged murder of rapists

Bangladesh police is on the hunt for a suspected serial killer who identifies himself as 'Hercules' and has been murdering alleged rapists, according to a media report. Over the past two weeks, bodies of three alleged rapists have been recovered and police suspect they were killed by the same person as all the murders bore similarities, the Daily Star reported.

On February 1, police found the body of a rape suspect with a note hanging around his neck in Jhalakathi's Rajapur upazila, in third such incident. This time, the note reads, “I am Rakib. I am the rapist of a madrasa girl…of Bhandaria. This is the consequence of a rapist. Be aware rapists…Hercules.”

The dead, Rakib Hossain, 20, was a law student at a private university in the capital and was accused in the gang rape of a madrasa student in Bhandaria, the daily said. The body was found with bullet injuries on the head, said Jahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Rajapur Police Station.

On January 14, a madrasa student was allegedly gang raped by two men when she was on the way to her grandparents' house. The victim's father filed a case accusing Rakib and another man Sajal in the case. On January 24, police recovered Sajal's bullet-hit body in Jhalakathi with a similar note hanging round the neck.

Sajal's father lodged a police complaint over his son's murder and the rape victim's father has been named prime accused in the case, said a senior police officer. On January 17, police had found the body of another key suspect in the gang rape and murder of a female garment worker on the outskirts of the capital, with a similar note hanging around his neck. Raising concern over the incidents, Sheepa Hafiza, executive director of rights group Ain O Salish Kendra, said killing people “extra-judicially” and leaving a note was not acceptable.

(With inputs from agencies.)