When this reporter visited Kaggalipura on Kanakapura road where Mallika’s husband Hanumanthappa lived with two daughters and a son.
Around nine years ago, the woman left home to make money by hook or by crook. A tailor in Kidwai Hospital, Hanumanthappa repents, “I am repenting why I didn’t eliminate her years ago.”
Hanumanthappa recalls that soon after she entered his life, money lenders started queuing up before his house demanding her to return the borrowed money. Then she ran a chit-fund which eventually exposed her as an impostor when she did not refund money.
With the increasing number of money lenders and duped people queuing up before his house, Hanumanthappa planned one night to kill her. But, he changed his mind and asked her to leave the house. He told the Kalasipalya police on Tuesday, to kill her. “We are fed up with this woman. If you can’t kill her , allow me to do the job.”
Mallika’s taxi driver son begged that the family be spared further ignominy as they have already suffered enough after the misdeeds of his mother appeared in the media. “She tried to get in touch with us, but I refused to talk to her. After the reports about my mother, both my sisters have not been able to step out of the house. They are so ashamed that they have threatened to end their lives. Our relatives and neighbours have been hounding us since Monday. We don’t know what to do?” he said.
Neighbours in shock
The residents of Badhekatte near Kaggalipura on Kanakapura road are in a state of shock when they learnt on Monday that Mallika had poisoned six people to death.
Mallika was frequently visiting Badhekatte to meet her octogenarian mother Boramma, who lived in the village for the last 20 years. From Tuesday morning, Boramma is also not seen. Her neighbours say, in the morning, she locked the door of her house and left without informing anyone.
Muniappa (name changed) remembers seeing the woman a month back. “She used to visit to our village and would stay with her mother for at least three days a month,” said Muniappa.
Malleshappa, the owner of the house that Boramma rented, was also in a shock.
