A software engineer and his girlfriend have been arrested for allegedly killing the former’s wife by serving her ‘cyanide-laced juice’ in south-west Delhi’s Kishangarh, the police said on Friday.
Thirty-two-year-old Rahul Kumar Mishra and his 33-year-old girlfriend Padma Tiwari confessed to having killed 26-year-old Puja Rai after they were shown electronic evidence during interrogation, they said.
“The two accused had been planning the murder for the past six months. They kept their conversations limited to WhatsApp calls to avoid getting caught. Rahul learned to match his wife’s handwriting for producing a fake suicide note. They searched the Internet on how to kill a person in a way that would go undetected,” said an officer.
‘Undetectable chemical’
They planned to poison Puja with cyanide as it causes instant death and the chemical is not easily detected in the body during post-mortem, the officer added. “The couple bought five ml of cyanide for ₹17,000 from a shop in Delhi,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rahul introduced Padma to his wife as his school friend and said she would help Puja get a new job. The victim, an MBA graduate, was working as an executive at a multinational firm.
After a few days, Puja got suspicious about her husband’s relation with Padma.
On March 17, Padma visited Puja’s house on the pretext of taking her resume for an opening in a company.
The victim was reluctant in letting her come to the house but Padma insisted.
“Padma then came to her [Puja] house with two glasses of orange juice. She waited till the maid left to as Puja to get her water. At this time, Padma laced the juice with cyanide and offered it to Puja. After drinking the juice, the victim felt uneasy and started vomiting. She tried to rush outside when Padma overpowered her and hit her on the head. She then smothered her with a pillow,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-West) Devendra Arya.
Following this, Padma placed a suicide note near Puja’s body, took the juice glasses and informed Rahul about the murder on WhatsApp call before leaving the house.
In the evening, Rahul came home and took Puja to a hospital claiming that he found her unconscious inside the house. The doctors declared her brought dead and informed the police about the incident.
“To ascertain the cause of death, a post-mortem was conducted by a medical board and viscera was preserved for forensic examination. The report revealed that Puja was smothered and sustained an internal injury on the head. Viscera report also found poisoning. A murder case was then registered at Kishangarh police station and investigation was ordered,” said Mr. Arya.
The police said they took Rahul and Padma in for questioning after going through technical surveillance report.
“After their confession, they were arrested and sent to jail,” the officer added.
Childhood friends
Rahul allegedly told the police that he and Padma had studied from Nursery to Class 12 at a school in Jharkhand’s Sindri district.
After this, they parted ways to pursue higher education but in April 2015, the two came in contact through a WhatsApp school group.
They then got into a relationship but their families disagreed to their marriage.
In January 2017, Rahul’s marriage was fixed with Puja. He told her about his relationship but did not disclose Padma’s identity.
The police said Rahul had hoped that Puja would reject him after this but, instead, she agreed to the marriage. The duo then got married on April 23, 2017.
