‘Cyanide Mohan’s victims could number more than 20’

“Cyanide Mohan’s victims could number more than 20,” said Anekal Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Nanjunda Gowda. It was Gowda as Bantwal police station Inspector and Investigating Officer (IO) who had arrested Cyanide Mohan while investigating the ‘Baremar’ missing case.

Gowda told DH that Mohan would have raped and murdered up to 30 women. “The bodies of 20 women were traced across five districts in six towns. But we found more gold jewellery, pledged with money lenders. As considerable time had passed, much of the gold jewellery had remained unidentified,” Gowda recollected.

On Mohan being awarded life sentence in the 20th case, Gowda said, “Justice had been delivered even to the unidentified victims.”

Public Prosecutor Judith O M Crasta, presently serving in Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), said Mohan had received a fair trial. “Victims have finally received justice,”  Crasta said and added that there was a sense of satisfaction in having worked sincerely on the cases.

From 2011 to 2020, Mohan’s case was heard by four Judges - Judge Ninganna Gowda Jantli, Judge B K Naik, Judge D T Puttarangaswamy and Judge Sayeedunnisa. The victims were represented by public prosecutors, including Cheyabba Beary, Shivaprasad Alva, Judith O M Crasta and Jayaram Shetty.

How Mohan was caught

Emboldened by his crimes going undetected, the thrice-married Cyanide Mohan threw caution to the winds and began taking risks. As according to the modus operandi, he did not destroy the cellphones of two of his victims.

He donated them to his brother’s son and brother-in-law. Public prosecutors initially depended on circumstantial evidence to reconstruct each crime and exposed Cyanide Mohan’s modus operandi with statements of two survivors. The prosecution successfully established the fact that Cyanide Mohan had purchased plastic containers to hold Cyanide capsules from a single shop in Car Street. Cyanide Mohan checked into hotels with the victims under different names. But ended up signing the hotel registrars in a similar manner.