The Stoneman was blamed for thirteen murders over six months (the first in June 1983), but it was never established whether the crimes were committed by one person or a group of individuals.
Starting in 1985, and lasting well over two years, a series of twelve murders were committed in the Sion and King's Circle locality of the city.
A homeless waiter survived one of the Stoneman's attacks and managed to escape to report it to police, However, in the dimly lit area of Sion where he was sleeping, he had not been able to get a good look at his assailant.
However, the similarity in the instrument, choice of victims, execution, and the time of the attacks suggests the assailant(s) was familiar with the Mumbai episodes, if not the same killer himself.
[3] Because the murderer killed victims by dropping a heavy stone or concrete slab, the police assumed that the assailant was probably a tall, well-built male.
The movie depicts the killings to be a part of a religious ritual being conducted by a policeman, with the actual perpetrator left open to interpretation at the end.
In the movie, the murderer is shown to choose victims mostly from the poor and homeless sector of society; either sex workers, drug users or street people.