The reason for their collective fear and insecurity, they are confident, is now far away from their lives, and watched over by the police day and night. He is there in ward no. 13, on the first floor of the Vidya Sagar Psychiatry Department of Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak.

He has confessed that he is the serial killer the police have been looking for in Bahadurgarh where 13 minor girls were kidnapped and raped in the last four years. The police are not sure about it and won't take any risk: they had arrested two suspects in the past but the killings continued even while they were in prison. The police are waiting for the results of the DNA tests to confirm the identity of the suspect.

Satish was arrested last month on charges of kidnapping aminor girl. He admitted that he had raped two. The police have booked him in five kidnapping cases and his remand is extended till December 20. Satish, however, says he has kidnapped 13 girls.

Sources say the lie detector tests have indicated that he is not lying but the police are awaiting the DNA test results which may take two months. Meanwhile, Satish is lodged at the mental hospital and is under observation. The doctors are yet to comment on him. Says Dr Rajeev Gupta: ``He is under observation and I had made only one round. Another round will be held in a day or so. Only then I will be able to comment on his mental state.''

The man in ward no. 13, who is believed to be the origin of the fear of thousands of people in Bahadurgarh and Jhajjar, does not have any visitors. His last visitor was his father who came to see him the day he was arrested.

Breaking the eerie silence of the psychiatry ward, Satish tells The Indian Express that he can identify the places from where he kidnapped all the 13girls. He insists that he is telling the truth and is not under pressure from the police. And adds that he was lying when he said he kidnapped only two girls at the press conference the police had called when he was arrested on November 21.

He says he knows what he has done and that he may even be sentenced to death. ``Jab hamne galat kam kiya hai tho jo bhi saza milegi, bhugategain (When I have done something wrong, I will have to bear the punishment),'' he says. When asked why he killed the girls, he stares at the wall. ``Mera dimagh kharab hua tha (I had gone mad),'' he says.

Satish, who hails from Hapur, Uttar Pradeh, is of medium build, 25 years-old and unmarried. A class VII drop-out, he was an employee of Ved Packaging Industries in Bahadurgarh and used to live in the town's Line Paar Colony.

The police say Satish has identified and traced the places from where he had abducted his victims. Navdeep Virk, Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, says that although Satish has confessed tothe crime, they are waiting for the DNA reports from Hyderabad. The police want to know if the semen on the clothes of the victims matches Satish's.

They have reasons to be extra-cautious as they had lost their credibility when they earlier arrested two persons for the same crimes.

Rambabu was arrested in January 1997 under suspicious circumstances. He was branded the serial killer but even after his arrest, abductions continued. Rambabu was killed later in Rohtak Jail by another undertrial.

The second person who the police claimed the serial killer was Shankar, who was arrested on July 10, 1997 for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a minor girl in June 1997. But abductions, rapes and murders continued even after his arrest.

Such memories of Bahadurgarh date back to February 20, 1995. That was when Pooja disappeared. Ever since, 12 other Bahadurgarh girls have been kidnapped and raped and 10 of them killed. The police and people now hope they don't ever hear about another abduction which will provethe serial killer is still on the run.

(with Navneet Sharma in Chandigarh)