Karnataka - Mangalore   

Man held for 18 murders

Photo: R. Eswarraj

tELLING: Photographs of some of the victims and the valuables recovered from the accused Mohan Kumar displayed at the press conference in Mangalore on Wednesday.

MANGALORE: Officers of the Puttur subdivision of the Dakshina Kannada Police on Wednesday nabbed a 46-year-old man who, the police said, has confessed to murdering 18 women by poisoning them with cyanide.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Superintendent of Police said that 13 of the women were from various parts of the district and five were from Kasaragod district in Kerala.

Raising concerns that there might be more to this case than what meets the eye, the accused, Mohan Kumar, has allegedly told the police that he had committed many more murders, but could not remember the names of the victims. Inspector-General of Police Gopal B. Hosur said that the accused had been planning to kill three more women and termed his capture a “silver lining in this dark case”.

The police said that Mohan Kumar would lurk around public places in search of underprivileged single women to befriend. Later, he would convince them to marry him. The victims would be enticed by his offer of simple marriage without dowry hassles. However, he reportedly ensured that the victims did not inform their families about the marriage plans and would take them to another city promising a marriage ceremony there. At daybreak, he would raise concerns of an unwanted pregnancy and convince the victims to take a contraceptive pill, which was actually cyanide.

What made the crimes almost undetectable was the fact that the victims’ bodies would be found in far-off places and the local police would seldom be able to identify the body. “The dots could never be connected,” explained Mr. Hosur.

However, when Anitha (22) went missing in June and the local police failed to solve the case, public pressure started mounting and a special team was formed by the Assistant Superintendent of Police (Puttur Subdivision) a month ago. The team, led by the Bantwal Police Inspector, started tracing calls made from the victims’ phones.

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