[0:03]I have a star on my face because I have a massive pimple, so if you're watching the visuals, I'm sorry. If you're not, Parul was catching her breath as she stepping in through her house front door. She was busy all day, running all of these errands, running around town, buying groceries, going to the local shops. And on top of all of that, she's heavily pregnant, so it's going to take like two times as long to do everything. And now she's rushing in through the door. She's trying to check up on her eight-year-old son, Amar. And also she's babysitting her six-month-old nephew, so she's checking up on both of them. And like, okay, yeah, in hindsight, probably not the best idea to leave an eight-year-old in charge of the house, in charge of watching this six-month-old baby. But in this area, daycare is just not really a thing. Like people don't really have babysitters. They don't really have places to send their kids so that they can run errands freely. This was the norm, and she had done it before and Amar, who's eight, I mean, he's pretty good. He's been left home alone. He's been babysitting his cousin. Everything has been fine. So she walks in through the door and she sees her son Amar just playing on the ground with all of his little toy cars. She's like, hey, sweetie, I'm home. And she's putting down the groceries and she's wondering, okay, well, where's the nephew? Where's the six-month-old? Amar just is sitting there quietly and doesn't even respond to her. Sweetie, did you hear me? Where is the baby? Is he in the crib? He's not responding. So she stops what she's doing, looks at her son, and she sees that he's kind of smiling. And it's just odd. It's a little unsettling. Like he's not laughing. He's not giggling. It feels like, you know, when a kid is playing a joke on you and they hid your keys when you're super busy. It's like that smile. So she's like, okay, come on, get out of here. Like where is the baby? And he just says so calmly, mom, I killed him. At first she thinks all of this is a joke. I mean, maybe this is how kids joke around. Maybe he inherited some weird sick deranged sense of humor from someone up in her family line. She doesn't know where, but this has got to be a joke, right? So she gets up and she's like, what are you talking about? Where did you hide the baby? The game is over, hurry up and tell me. He just grabs her hand and starts leading her to the backyard. And I think this is when she genuinely starts feeling a little bit more relaxed. I mean, I think she could still probably hear the heartbeat in her throat. She's probably still a little bit panicked because the baby is still missing right now. But she's thinking, okay, I'm going to go outside. The baby's going to be laying flat on its back in the grass in the backyard. Sucking its thumb, looking up at the sky, it's going to be okay. And then I'm going to have to teach my kid a lesson. But as they're heading out, there's nothing. The deeper they get into their backyard, she's starting to get that anxious feeling again. And she starts scolding her son, like, this isn't a good prank. Just tell me where you hid him. You need to you need to tell me, this could be dangerous. He starts silently leading her towards the back, further and further. And finally, he lifts his hand, his tiny little hand and points at the ground. There's a bunch of dirt that looks like it's been freshly dug in a patch of grass. She doesn't even have time to think. She throws herself on all fours. She starts digging until her fingers brushed soft skin. And she lifts her baby nephew out of the dirt. And it looked like he had been in some sort of horrible, horrible car accident. I mean, she could hear ringing in her ears. She's panicking. And she looks at her son and he just calmly says, Mom, I smashed his head with a brick. And she leaned over to the side and threw up.
[4:19]So, as always, full show notes are available at Rottenmangopodcast.com, but this case takes place in India. I had our wonderful Indian researchers assist with gathering all of the data for this case and honestly just helping understanding the cultural aspect to it all. Indian culture in some respects is very similar to Korean or even American culture, but there are some stark differences. So if there's any chance that there's any nuance of cultural significance that I wasn't able to fully grasp, please let me know or if there's anything else you want me to know about this case, let me know in the comments. And I'm sure you guys already know this, but a quick disclaimer, okay, the actions of one individual does not reflect on the culture, nor the Indian population as a whole. So with that being said, let's get into it. The police are sitting across from a serial killer in the interrogation room.
[5:12]Now, usually there's a whole list of mind games that they play in order to get the serial killer to confess to their crimes. It's a little bit different versus a regular killer, not that like, okay, regular killer sounds weird, but you get what I'm saying. A serial killer, they have a tendency to kill a lot of people and they have, they have a lot, does that make sense? It's a little bit different from having just a not a regular killer, but you get the idea. They handle serial killers in a different way. And serial killers, they like to play their games. It is not uncommon for serial killers to ask for things from the police. They say, oh, before I start talking, before I tell you where the bodies are, before I confess to the crime so these families can get closure, maybe I can get a cigarette around here. What's the guy got to do to get a cup of coffee? Or maybe sometimes it's a full-on fast food order. A lot of them like to ask for these things because it makes them feel powerful. I mean, think about it. It's almost when you're in the interrogation room, most people would think, I don't have the power here. The police have the power. But when a serial killer says, I've got information you desperately want, and I'm going to make you sit here and watch me eat McDonald's until I decide, I'm ready to tell you. It makes them feel like they hold all of the power. They want to save her this moment. So the investigators in this case, they're sitting across from a serial killer and they're asking, tell us why you did it. Why did you kill them? And he just says, I want some biscuits. Like the cookies, you know, the biscuit cookies that you dip in the tea. I want that and I want a cup of tea. The investigators are annoyed, but I mean, what choice do they have, right? They walk out of the room, they get the cookies and the tea, and for a few minutes, they're sitting there in the interrogation room with the serial killer, watching him just munching on his packets of cookies and leisurely sipping his tea, as if they're just having afternoon tea with one another, as if they're old, old buddies from like the college days. Once the killer had his fill, he leans back and he starts talking. She was sleeping. I took her away and I killed her with a brick. I was like smashing the brick on her face. I actually didn't feel that much excitement when I tried strangling her because she wasn't fighting back. So that's why I chose the brick. I hit her a lot of times with the brick.
[7:38]And when they asked like, why, like still that doesn't answer why that answers maybe how, but why? He just says, because I felt like it. I just wanted to. If one of the investigators had dropped their notepad or pen, because this is a shocking confession, when they leaned down to pick it up, they would have seen that the serial killer's feet did not even touch the ground. His legs were dangling off the interrogation room chair, because he's eight years old. This is the story of Amarjeet Sada, the world's youngest serial killer ever. So, I mean, this is crazy, and I know that with a lot of serial killers, we like to go into the childhood and figure out like what happened. Did they fall off a swing, which is like a big conversation we've had on this pod, right? But Amarjeet's childhood seems so normal, if not mundane, in some aspects.
[8:44]So at the very beginning of his life, he was kind of like every other boy his age. His parents said that he was very rambunctious and he went through the terrible toddler phase, the terrible twos phase. But I don't think it was it was something so alarming. I don't think anyone sat there and was like, this one is different. This one is extra wild. I mean, he would do the normal things, like he would lay like a starfish, if you don't give him what you want. Or sometimes you're like trying to take him out of the playground, he would pretend to be dead and go limp. And he was like that, when he didn't get the things that he wanted, he would just pout. He didn't care that his family wasn't financially well off. He just wanted the toys, he wanted what he wanted for dinner. I mean, he was just a kid, right? But how could his parents not adore him? He was their only son, their only child, and every morning Amar's mother would get out her coal. It's like this black powder that can also be used as eyeliner. And she would dip her thumb in it and smear a dot on the side of Amar's forehead. And she says, so this is a tradition where a black dot is placed on the child's forehead or cheek. It's supposed to ward off evil. It's supposed to ward off the evil eye. Yeah, and it's protecting the child from all the negative influences and it's a it's a very heartfelt motherly thing to do. It's one of those like heartwarming symbols of a mom's love. His mom would do that for him every single day and she would say, may no one cast an evil eye on you. I don't think that she had any idea that he was the one that was going out there to be evil. I mean, how could she? Her son is eight. Imagine calling a child evil. You would get canceled. You'd get canceled all over social media, but imagine if that child is eight years old, not even like 15, 16, eight. No one would ever even consider the fact that an eight-year-old could knowingly do something malicious. And to the adults, he was like this little angel. He was always known to be very smiley. That's what the neighbors said about him. Even the police when they interrogated him, they said he smiles a lot. Like just non-stop smiling. You ask him questions, he's going to be smiling. He's telling you the story of how he killed people, he's smiling. When he's asking for cookies, he's smiling.
[11:20]So Amar's friends on the other hand, I mean, he smiled at them too, but they were just, they were the only ones it seems that kind of noticed something off about him. He just played different. You know, when kids are playing, they're learning social skills and they're learning what it means to joke around without actually being too mean. They're learning how to be aggressive and initiate play wrestling without actually initiating a full-on war, a full-on fight. And then I'm sure you've met one of those people, even as an adult where you're like, oh, I feel like they don't really grasp the concept of how to talk to people. Like everyone is in a group and they're joking around lightly and they're like almost uplifting each other in their jokes. Like they're not actually punching down, but then this person will come in and just absolutely rip people to shreds, light someone on fire with their insults. But they're laughing as if they're doing exactly what you're doing. And you're like, that is not what we're doing here. It was kind of like that, but in the more childish sense. So Amar's friends said that he was always extra aggressive. Like there was just something about it. And it was very noticeable, but they couldn't tell him about it. They couldn't confront him about it. They didn't even know how they're just kids. For example, all of their friends would be play fighting or wrestling, pushing each other around. And then Amar would come in and he would just start throwing down real punches, as if he wants to hurt whoever the friend is that he's punching. But he's laughing as he's doing this.
[13:07]And they also said, whenever we played games, you know, we were at the age where we don't really throw tantrums in front of each other, or like seven or eight. Maybe we do that at home, but we're trying to be cool kids in front of each other. If he didn't win a game, he would whirl his arms around like a propeller, just smacking around anybody in his way. He would kick dirt around and then he would march off home as if you personally attacked him. And everyone's like, okay, well, maybe he'll grow up. Maybe it'll get better once he starts growing up, right? But then he starts becoming a little bit anti-social in an angry way. So there would be instances where his neighborhood friends, they would be running in their group down to the little lake. And they would see him sitting on his front doorstep, so they're passing and they would call out, hey, you want to come and play with us? And he would look at the ground and he would say, I don't really want to. Just in like a really soft voice. And then they'd say, hey, why aren't you playing with us anymore? Are we not your friends anymore? Yeah, it's been so long. Like, let's go for the swim in the pond, it'll be so fun. Out of nowhere, Amar would jump to his feet and start screaming from the bottom of his lungs, no! Like screaming at them. They could see the veins on his neck, his face was turning red. I mean, they were honestly so spooked out about this. It's so weird. They didn't even, they would book it. They would book it out of there because it's creepy. So instead of playing with his friends, Amar would just isolate himself. He would spend more and more time by himself as he turned like seven or eight years old. He would climb trees and just stay up there for hours, staring at anyone that was walking by below him. Or he would stay home and play with his toys by himself. Now, from all accounts that I could find, Amar was the bully. Like literally all the sources are like, Amar was the bully. But Amar's mom didn't really think so. Okay, I think this goes to show you how much she doted on him. In this case, but she genuinely babied him. Like have you ever met those parents where their kids are an absolute menace to society, but they think that their kids are the ultimate victims to society. So Amar would come in and there was this one time, he had come in with grass stains all over his clothes. He had dirt all over his knees, he had a cut on his knee. And honestly, it just feels like he was playing rough with his friends or maybe he fell climbing up a tree. But his mom thought otherwise. She was cooking. She freaked out. She wiped her hands on her apron and she's running off him, like trying to get the dirt off of him. Like, what happened? What happened? He wouldn't say. So she thinks, oh my God, he's being bullied. The next day, she goes to get a holy amulet. Which is, um, she goes to a Hindu priest and asked for a holy amulet, which is, um, considered an object with great spiritual powers. You wear it to protect you and it offers blessings and guidance. It's a it's like a tangible connection to the divine. And she gives it to him and she's like, you got to wear this so you don't get bullied. And he's like, no. This is disgusting and embarrassing. I don't want to wear this from you, mom. And he's saying, absolutely not. The only way that she could convince him to wear it was to tell him that the amulet came from the Hindu deity of love, compassion, devotion, strength, and intelligence himself. So some people speculate, this kind of goes to show, maybe he had some sort of budding narcissistic personality disorder. Where he felt like it was now worthy to be worn every single day if it was given from someone very powerful, versus his mom. But he's eight, so I don't think we can really speculate, right? Now, Amar gave his mom a sly smile and he snatches the amulet and he wears it every single day now. And I just don't even think that Amar really considered how much his parents loved him. Like his parents were under constant stress. Okay, his dad, I believe his dad was the only one that was working. And he was a day laborer, meaning he would go to all these nearby farms and he would ask, do you guys need any workers today? If they said yes, he would work that day and get paid for that one day. If they said no, he would have to move on to the next farm, and if all of them said no, he would have no work that day. It's just so unstable and even when he did work, he was making basically pennies. The average wage for a day laborer in that area was around $2.50 or $3 per day, and that's calculated with inflation.
[18:10]Not per day, per month. Mina needed this $100. It would be a life of a difference for their struggling family. I mean, no mom wants to part with their newborn child like that, but it's so that he could have his belly full. And it made sense to leave her baby boy with Parul, Amar's mom because Parul was heavily pregnant with her second child. So she was going to be breastfeeding soon and the nephew would also be breastfed. So she'd be kind of like a wet nurse, like a caretaker.
[19:59]Parul was like, I don't know, Mina. I mean, we're already like, we're already drowning in bills. We can barely put food on the table. I don't know if we can take it another mouth to feed. Obviously, I want to help, but we're about to have another one on the way. Mina said, I can send you some of my money. So Parul could not say no. She agreed, and the day Mina was set to leave, she brought her son over. I don't know if I could verify his name, so we're just going to call him the baby boy. And Mina just cradled him, said a prayer for him, dabbed a bit of coal from her eyes to his forehead to protect him. And then she left. Mina was sad, but she's like, this is the right thing to do. Not only that, but this is like the second best place for my baby. If I can't take care of my baby, my sister is the second best place. Nobody's going to care for my baby like our family. So for the first week, Parul is just adjusting to having a newborn around. And she kind of thought it was good practice, since she's going to be having a baby soon. It would have been seven years since Amar had been an infant. So she's getting all these refreshers. She's using Amar's old clothes, old toys, old crib for the baby, as well as some of the things that Mina had left for her. And one morning, she's like, oh my God, I got to go to the market to buy some vegetables for dinner tonight. We're out of vegetables. So she swaddles the baby boy, places him into the crib, and she tells her son, keep an eye on the baby.
