Manvat Murders

What Is the Series About?

Manvat Murders is a 2024 Marathi-language docudrama series streaming on SonyLIV that reconstructs one of India's most disturbing true crime cases: the ritualistic murders of ten women and girls in the remote village of Manwat, Nanded District, Maharashtra, between November 14, 1972, and January 4, 1974. Rooted in black magic and occult belief, the crimes shocked the nation when they came to light and remain among the most harrowing examples of superstition-driven violence in Indian legal history. The eight-episode series is based on the book Footprints on the Sand of Crime by Ramakant S. Kulkarni, the Special Crime Branch officer who cracked the case after local police had failed.

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The Case

A Village in the Grip of Occult Terror

Between late 1972 and early 1974, ten female victims — an infant, five young girls, and four adult women — were killed in Manwat, a rural settlement in Maharashtra's Nanded District. The murders were not random acts of violence. According to investigators and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment, they were carried out as part of deliberate occult rituals intended to harness supernatural power through blood sacrifice. Victims were gagged, throttled, axed, and subjected to the extraction of blood.

Named victims documented in official court records include Gayabai, Shakila Allaudin (approximately ten years old, who disappeared on December 9, 1972), Nasima, Sugandhabai, Haribai, Haribai's two young daughters, an unnamed infant girl, and at least two additional female victims. The Supreme Court judgment confirms ten victims total, though some secondary sources and the IMDb listing cite seven — a discrepancy that the official legal record resolves in favour of ten.

The Perpetrators

The principal orchestrators of the killings were Uttamrao Barhate, a villager who directed the rituals; Rukhmini Kale, a woman deeply embedded in the occult network; and Sopan Thote, employed by Barhate and identified as the primary executioner who carried out the axings. A fourth figure, Samindri — Rukhmini's younger sister — is described in some accounts as a hidden orchestrator who helped confuse investigators, though she was not formally sentenced, reportedly having perished in connection with the rituals themselves.

Accomplices Ganpat Salve and Shankar Gyanoba Kate assisted in luring victims and in the collection of blood during rituals. A sixth figure known in trial documents as the approver Shankar was instrumental in building the prosecution's case.

The Investigation

Local police were unable to connect the disappearances and deaths. The breakthrough came when Special Crime Branch officer Ramakant Kulkarni took charge of the investigation. His methodical work — gathering bloodstained clothing, identifying bite marks, matching blood groups, and recovering ritual articles catalogued as Evidence Articles 17 through 21 — eventually built an airtight case. Approvers Ganpat (PW1) and Shankar (PW2) provided critical eyewitness testimony. Arrests were made on June 18, 1973, before the killing series had fully concluded.

Trial and Verdict

The trial began in late 1974 and became a national spectacle. On November 20, 1975, the Sessions Court delivered its verdict: Rukhmini Kale, Uttamrao Barhate, and Sopan Thote were sentenced to death; four accomplices received life imprisonment; and ten additional accused were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The Supreme Court of India subsequently heard appeals and confirmed the death sentences, while setting aside a conspiracy charge for lack of evidence. All three condemned were eventually executed. The accomplices served their sentences and are now deceased.

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Production

The series is directed by Ashish Avinash Bende and written by Girish Joshi, produced under the banner of Storyteller's Nook. Its source material — Kulkarni's first-person account Footprints on the Sand of Crime — gives the series direct access to the investigator's perspective, lending procedural authenticity to the reconstruction of events. The cast is headlined by Ashutosh Gowariker, Sai Tamhankar, Makarand Anaspure, Sonali Kulkarni, Kishor Kadam, and Mayur Khandge, an ensemble that spans some of Marathi and Hindi cinema's most recognised names.

The series premiered on October 4, 2024, exclusively on SonyLIV in the Marathi language, positioning itself within a growing wave of Indian regional-language true crime content that has found audiences far beyond its linguistic home. The IMDB page for the series carries the ID tt33320881.

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Reception

Critical reception was measured but generally positive, with most reviewers acknowledging the power of the underlying story while noting the series does not fully capitalise on its material.

- Shubhra Gupta (The Indian Express) awarded 2.5 out of 5, writing that the series "delivers less than promised."

- Deepa Gahlot (Rediff.com) gave 3 out of 5, calling it a "chilling retelling but one that avoids the big questions."

- Mihir Bhanage (Times of India) also scored it 3 out of 5, echoing that it "promises a lot, delivers less."

- Saibal Chatterjee (NDTV) rated it 3 out of 5, noting it was "unlikely to knock hardened viewers out of their socks."

- Vaibhavi Mishra (Gadgets 360) awarded 3 out of 5, describing it as a "chilling retelling of real-life occult killings."

The consensus points to a technically competent production anchored by strong performances and disturbing source material, but one that stops short of the unflinching depth the case arguably demands. As of July 2026, no public user rating is displayed on IMDb.

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The Case Today

All convicted perpetrators are deceased. The Manvat murders remain a landmark case in Indian criminal jurisprudence — frequently cited in discussions of superstition-related violence, the admissibility of approver testimony, and the standards required for capital punishment confirmation at the Supreme Court level. The 2024 SonyLIV series has reintroduced the case to a new generation of viewers, and renewed public discussion has surfaced on platforms such as Reddit's r/Nanded community, where local residents and researchers have shared additional historical context about the village and the long shadow the murders cast over the region. Maharashtra's broader reckoning with occult crime and the legal framework around superstition-based violence — including the Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act enacted in 2013 — owes a partial debt to cases like the Manvat murders, which first exposed the deadly intersection of rural isolation, belief, and organised criminal exploitation.