Ram Niranjan Kol, who is better known as Raja Kolander, has been convicted of murder in two separate cases decided thirteen years apart. In November 2012 a court in Allahabad, now Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of Dhirendra Singh. In May 2025 a court in Lucknow sentenced him to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of Manoj Kumar Singh and Ravi Srivastava, both killed in 2000. Police have said he confessed to many more killings. The courts have not found those proved.
His name appears in the press in several spellings: Kolander, Kolandar, Kalandar and Kalander. The first element of the name, Raja, is a nickname; the name on the court record is Ram Niranjan, with the surname Kol.
Ram Niranjan came from Hinauta, a village in Shankargarh in the Naini area of Prayagraj district, which was called Allahabad until recently. Amar Ujala reported in 2025 that he had worked as a Class IV employee at the Central Ordnance Depot at Chheoki and was later suspended. He lived in Ram Sagra village in Naini. His wife served as a district panchayat member. His brother-in-law, Bachhraj Kol, would later stand trial beside him in both cases. The name is also written Bachchhraj and Vakshraj in the press.
India TV gave his age as 50 in November 2012. His date of birth is not on record.
Dhirendra Singh was killed in 2000. Amar Ujala places the case in December 2000. The paper reports that Ram Niranjan was arrested in 2000, after this murder.
The paper adds that under questioning he reportedly confessed to thirteen more murders besides this one. Those statements are police attributions. They did not result in convictions. Press Trust of India reported in 2012 that the court found the prosecution had not established his involvement in other killings, and that his family denied the wider allegations.
The case against him for the murder of Dhirendra Singh was tried by Additional Sessions Judge Mahtab Ahmed in Allahabad. India TV, writing on November 30, 2012, said the case had run for more than twelve years. Press Trust of India reported on December 1, 2012, that the sentence had been passed the day before, that the court found it proved beyond doubt that Ram Niranjan and his brother-in-law Vakshraj Kol had murdered Dhirendra Singh, and that each was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000.
The two reports differ on one point of law. Press Trust of India says the court declined to treat the case as one of the rarest of rare, the category that carries the death penalty in India. India TV wrote that the court had called the murder of Dhirendra Singh a rarest of rare case. Both report a sentence of life imprisonment, not death.
The 2012 verdict covered the killing of Dhirendra Singh only. The court did not accept the wider allegations that police had made.
Manoj Kumar Singh was 22 and came from Raebareli. Ravi Srivastava was with him. Amar Ujala reports that both were abducted in 2000 and killed. Manoj Singh's father filed the first police report. A charge sheet followed in March 2001, according to Top Indian News, but the trial did not begin until about twelve years later because of legal complications. The public prosecutor said twelve witnesses gave evidence.
The case was heard in Lucknow by Additional District Judge Rohit Singh. Amar Ujala reports that the court found Ram Niranjan and Bachhraj Kol guilty about four days before sentencing. The Free Press Journal, in a report updated on May 21, 2025, described the conviction and said the sentence was due on the Friday. Government advocate M. K. Singh asked for the death penalty. On Friday, May 23, 2025, the court held that the case was not one of the rarest of rare and sentenced each man to:
life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for murder during dacoity;
10 years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for kidnapping;
10 years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for possessing dacoity or stolen property;
7 years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for destroying evidence.
The terms run concurrently. Amar Ujala adds that a life sentence in this case means imprisonment until death. The section numbers of the Indian Penal Code are not on record.
Police have said that Ram Niranjan confessed to thirteen murders besides the killing of Dhirendra Singh, making fourteen in all. No court has convicted him of those killings, and the 2012 court recorded that the prosecution had not established his involvement in other deaths. They are attributed to him by police and are not findings.
The 2012 trial took place in Allahabad and the 2025 trial in Lucknow, before Additional District Judge Rohit Singh. Whatever the 2012 court said of the rarest-of-rare category, the sentence it passed was life imprisonment, not death.
As of May 2025, Amar Ujala reported that both men were in jail and that his mother-in-law said she had last visited him in Lucknow jail some months earlier. Whether an appeal has been filed in either case is not on record.
2000: Dhirendra Singh is killed; Ram Niranjan is arrested later in 2000.
2000: Manoj Kumar Singh and Ravi Srivastava are abducted and killed.
March 2001: charge sheet filed in the Manoj Kumar Singh and Ravi Srivastava case.
November 30, 2012: Ram Niranjan and Vakshraj Kol receive life imprisonment in Allahabad for the murder of Dhirendra Singh.
Mid-May 2025: Ram Niranjan and Bachhraj Kol are found guilty in Lucknow.
May 23, 2025: each sentenced to life imprisonment and concurrent terms; death sentence refused.