In 1989 a series of killings ran through Calcutta, now Kolkata, in which the victims were among the poorest people in the city. They were men and women who had no home and slept on the pavements. Each was killed at night, while asleep, by a heavy stone brought down on the head. A popular English-language daily in the city called the unknown attacker the Stoneman, and the name stuck (India TV News, 2012).
Press accounts credit the Stoneman with 13 deaths over about six months, beginning in June 1989 (India TV News, 2012; The South First, 2023; Vice, 2021; The CSR Journal, 2025). A 2013 feature in Open magazine counted ten. No one was ever charged. In 2012 India TV News called it one of the greatest unsolved mysteries facing the police of a modern Indian city, and wrote that it was never established whether the crimes were the work of one person or of a group, or whether some of the deaths were copycat killings.
The people killed lived and slept on the streets of the city. Open described them, together with the victims of an earlier series in Bombay, as beggars and rag pickers who slept alone on dimly lit streets. In both cities, the magazine wrote, the dead often had no family to come forward, and many could not be identified.
The reports name no Calcutta victim and give no one's age, origin or work. What is recorded is the pattern: the victims slept alone, in poorly lit places, and were attacked late at night or in the early hours of the morning (Open, 2013; The CSR Journal, 2025).
The series began in June 1989 (India TV News, 2012). Over the following months, more deaths of the same kind were reported. Each victim was struck on the head with a large stone or concrete slab while asleep.
The attacks came at night. No witness was found who had seen one, and no forensic traces were recovered (Open, 2013; The CSR Journal, 2025).
The Calcutta police had little to work with. Open reported that the police drew up a profile of the killer as "a well-built tall person," and that the profiling went no further because there was no forensic evidence. The CSR Journal wrote that the police put extra officers on the streets across the city, but that the lack of eyewitnesses and forensic traces made the case hard to solve.
The police also compared notes with their counterparts in Bombay, now Mumbai, where a similar series of pavement killings had taken place a few years earlier. According to Open, the two forces shared investigative information, but found no evidence that the same killer was at work in both cities; only the method was the same.
During the hunt the police detained a number of people. The CSR Journal wrote in 2025 that, despite many arrests and investigations, no one was ever charged or convicted. The names of the people detained in 1989 were not reported, and none was taken to trial.
The killings in Calcutta stopped as suddenly as they had begun (Open, 2013). Why they stopped was not reported. India TV News wrote in 2012 that no one had been sentenced, and The CSR Journal described the case as unsolved in July 2025, with no later charge, reopening or new lead reported in the 1989 Calcutta deaths.
The Calcutta killings are usually told alongside an earlier series in Bombay. Open reported that between 1985 and 1987 twelve pavement dwellers were found dead with head injuries from heavy stones, mainly in the central suburbs of Sion and Matunga. Like the Calcutta victims, they were rag pickers and beggars who slept alone on dimly lit streets, and they were killed in the early hours while asleep. Sniffer dogs found nothing; there were no fingerprints and no witnesses. People in the area stopped going out after seven in the evening. The Bombay police drew up several profiles, one of which suggested that the killer was acting on the instructions of a tantric, but none led to a suspect, and the killings stopped as abruptly as they had started (Open, 2013).
Counts for Bombay differ. Open gives twelve deaths from 1985 to 1987. The CSR Journal wrote in 2025 that at least 12 homeless people were killed in the Sion and King's Circle areas. The South First, in 2023, wrote that an unidentified man who committed 26 similar murders in Mumbai between 1985 and 1988 was given the same name. The figure of 26 is not explained in that report and does not match the other counts.
The Bombay killer was also never caught (Outlook, IANS, 2022). Whether the two series were linked has never been settled. The CSR Journal wrote in 2025 that some people speculated the same person or group was responsible in both cities, and that this was never confirmed. Open reported that the police of the two cities found no evidence of a single killer.
The name Stoneman has since been given by the Indian press to other people accused of killing sleeping pavement dwellers. In 2013 Open reported a new series in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, where ten beggars were found dead over four months near the railway station area; police arrested a man who was alleged to have confessed to two of the deaths, and the magazine questioned whether he was the right man. In June 2023 The South First reported that a man in Hyderabad had been remanded in judicial custody, accused of killing three people sleeping on pavements, and the press there called him the Stoneman. In 2022 IANS reported, through Outlook, that a man accused of a string of killings in Madhya Pradesh had also been called the Stoneman. These are separate cases with no shown link to Calcutta in 1989.
In July 2025 The CSR Journal reported the death of a young man who lived on a Kolkata footpath, under a headline that asked whether the Stoneman was back. The same report gave the police account: they traced the death to a dispute with another worker, arrested a suspect, and said he had confessed. The paper used the case to look back on the 1989 killings.
The Bombay killings were the basis of the Hindi film The Stoneman Murders (2009), directed by Manish Gupta and starring Kay Kay Menon and Arbaaz Khan, which Outlook (IANS) described as weaving fiction and reality (Outlook, 2022). The CSR Journal lists the Bengali film Baishe Srabon (2011) among the films the case inspired. In 2019 the Bengali streaming service Hoichoi released a web series, also called The Stoneman Murders, set in Kolkata; Sangbad Pratidin, introducing its trailer in July 2019, wrote that the series brought back memories of the Stoneman who had frightened the city thirty years earlier.
Vice, writing in 2021, described the Kolkata Stoneman as an unidentified killer who killed 13 street dwellers with heavy stones, and wrote that the memory of the case has become a well-known urban legend in India.
How many died. The published counts are 13 (India TV News, 2012; The South First, 2023; Vice, 2021; The CSR Journal, 2025) and 10 (Open, 2013). None of these outlets published a list of the dead.
One killer or more. India TV News (2012) wrote that the police never established whether one person or a group was responsible, or whether some deaths were copycat killings.
The link with Bombay. The Bombay and Calcutta police found that the method matched but found no evidence of a single killer (Open, 2013). The idea that one person carried out both series is speculation (The CSR Journal, 2025).
The profile. The police description of the killer as tall and well built rested on no forensic evidence, and the police could take it no further (Open, 2013).
The Bombay count. Twelve deaths (Open, 2013; The CSR Journal, 2025) against 26 (The South First, 2023).
1985 to 1987: Twelve pavement dwellers are killed with heavy stones in Bombay, mainly in Sion and Matunga (Open, 2013). The South First (2023) gives 26 deaths from 1985 to 1988.
June 1989: The first killing in the Calcutta series (India TV News, 2012).
1989: Over about six months, deaths of sleeping pavement dwellers are attributed to the killer the press calls the Stoneman; the count is given as 13 or 10. Calcutta and Bombay police share information. People held by the police are released, and no one is charged.
After 1989: The Calcutta killings stop.
2009: The Hindi film The Stoneman Murders, based on the Bombay killings, is released.
2011: The Bengali film Baishe Srabon is released.
November 30, 2012: India TV News reports that no one has been sentenced for the killings.
June 26, 2013: Open reports that the Calcutta and Bombay police found no evidence of a single killer.
2019: Hoichoi releases the web series The Stoneman Murders.
July 24, 2025: The CSR Journal describes the 1989 Calcutta killings as unsolved.