With the nation yet to recover from the shock over the Nithari child slaughters, Patna police have stumbled upon a serial killer named Laden, who lured young people to parties organised by him and butchered them.

Subodhan Kumar alias Laden, like his more infamous namesake, eluded the police for 11 long years before being caught on Sunday from a place under Gandhi Maidan police station of Patna for illegal possession of firearms.

Police said the 25-year-old criminal, a matriculate from Sandalpur village in Nalanda district, had confessed to killing at least nine people, including a Kashmiri, since plunging into the world of crime in 1995.

Elaborating on the modus operandi of the gang, Mundrika Prasad, officer-in-charge of the police station, said Laden used to approach young acquaintances of his target, develop friendship with them and invite them to a party where delicacies and liquor were aplenty. The victim was then shifted to Laden's hideout from where the demand for ransom was placed. The victims, whether or not they paid the ransom, were butchered.

"In order to cover his tracks, he finished off his victims. Those who refused to cough up money naturally did not have even an outside chance," he said.

During interrogation, Laden revealed that he had kidnapped a 15-year-old boy Pravesh Kumar from Postal Park locality in Patna in September. Pravesh had gone to Postal Park with friends on September 17 from where after some merry-making he was taken to Laden's hideout in Nalanda district.

The gang then approached the boy's parents for ransom, which they refused to pay following which Laden killed the boy, cutting his body into pieces. In order to verify Laden's claim a police team was sent to Harnaut where the dismembered body of the boy was found. So decomposed was the body that it could be identified by the family only from his dismembered hand and shirt, Prasad told PTI.

Laden was involved in ten cases of murder, loot and kidnapping with various police stations in Patna, Nalanda and Saran districts, Prasad said. He said ten members of the gang of about 40 were already in jail. Laden was being interrogated.