Yadav grew up in the Kasturba Nagar slum, which is located in the Indian central city of Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Yadav and his gang committed crimes consisting of rape, murder, home invasion, and extortion in Kasturba Nagar for 13 years, until his death.

Akku tried to create a small business empire; he extorted money, harming and threatening those who resisted him.

He bribed police, giving them money and buying them drinks to convince them to let him continue committing crimes.

After a woman named Usha Narayane resisted Akku and his gang, a mob burned down his house.

Senior police sources said the lynching was carried out by four men and that the women who had claimed responsibility were protecting them.

On the day of the lynching, BBC News initially reported that about 14 women and several children forced their way into the courtroom and stabbed Akku to death.

A limited web series called Indian Predator: Murder in a courtroom was released on Netflix depicting the story and interviews of the victims.

[1] Akku Yadav grew up in the Kasturba Nagar slum outside the central Indian city of Nagpur, Maharashtra.

[2] Yadav lived and did business in the slum, which housed some criminals and, according to police, two rival gangs who worked the area.

In her book Killing Justice: Vigilantism in Nagpur, author Swati Mehta wrote: "by all accounts, a child of the neighbourhood, Akku had graduated from milkman's son to local menace".

[3] In their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wrote: "Akku Yadav was, in a sense, the other 'success' of Kasturba Nagar.

[4] It is known that many of the Yadav's rape victims were Dalits,[7] who face a disproportionate level of difficulty in receiving justice for cases of sexual assault.

[8] Pratibha Urkude and her husband Dattu ran a small grocery shop and Akku harassed them for years.

His other crimes included rape, murder, robbery, extortion, home invasion, assault, and criminal intimidation.

Once Akku entered, he stabbed the husband in the thigh with a knife, locked him in the bathroom and dragged the wife by her hair away to a place where he raped her.

[15] An elderly man named Harichand Khorse, who earned a small amount of money playing a musical instrument called a baja, was beaten violently by Akku because he was unable to pay 100 rupees.

[4] Akku took a woman named Asha Bhagat[16] and tortured her in front of her daughter and several neighbours by cutting off her breasts.

A man named Avinash Tiwari, one of the neighbours, was horrified by the murder and planned to report Akku to the police.

[4] Akku ordered his men to drag girls as young as age 12 to a nearby derelict building to gang rape.

Vegetable vendors avoided Kasturba Nagar, so housewives had to go to far-away markets to buy food.

[17] After Akku raped a 13-year-old girl, he and his men went to the house of a woman named Ratna Dungiri to demand money.

[18] Meanwhile, Akku continued to pound on the door and threaten her, saying: "I'll throw acid on your face, and you won't be in a position to file any more complaints!

Narayane shouted back insults, and Yadav responded with descriptions of how he would rape, burn her with acid, and murder her.

[21] On 7 August, Yadav was due to appear at the city district court and 500 slum residents gathered.

[13] After the police arrested Yadav for his own protection, a bail hearing was scheduled for him on 13 August 2004 in India's Nagpur District Court.

Hundreds of women marched from the slums to the courthouse carrying vegetable knives and chili powder, walked into the courtroom and took seats near the front.

"[21] Shortly after Yadav's death, Outlook, an Indian magazine, reported that local police spoke indirectly about gang-war rivalries between Akku's group and a smaller one that allegedly supported the women.

[21] In 2014, it was reported that all of the remaining accused in the Akku Yadav murder case were released due to a lack of evidence.

[31] 200 Halla Ho, a crime thriller film released in 2021 featuring actor Amol Palekar, was based on Yadav.