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Just days after police began cracking down on Kerala’s ‘cyanide serial killer,’ the Andhra police arrested a watchman for allegedly murdering 10 people.
The suspected serial killer was identified as Vellanki Simhadri alias Shiva from Eluru. He had allegedly killed his victims, including three women, between February 2018 to October 2019.
The police have also arrested Sheikh Ameenulla Babu, a resident of Vijayawada, who allegedly supplied Shiva with the cyanide. He works in a nickel-plating workshop where cyanide is used in the process.
West Godavari Superintendent of Police Navadeep Singh said Simhadri duped victims posing as a realtor and man with supernatural powers. He would get money or jewellery in exchange for ‘energised rice-pulling coins’.
Poisoned Prasad
Promising to double their wealth, he said these coins would bring prosperity. He then gave his victims cyanide-laced prasad along with the coin and once they lost consciousness, ran away with the loot.
“A couple of his victims purchased Ayurvedic medicine for chronic ailments. While most of his victims were killed with cyanide-laced prasad, people suffering from chronicle ailments were administered the poison in the medicine.”Navadeep Singh, West Godavari Superintendent of Police
Police have retrieved over Rs 1.6 lakh in cash and 26 gold coins from his residence.
The police said that he had used cyanide because it is difficult to detect, and would make it appear to be a natural death.
The deceased are Vallabhaneni Umamaheshwara Rao (Krishna District , Nuzhividu), Pulapa Tavitayya (Krishna District Marribanda), G Bhaskara Rao (Krishna District, Agiripally) K Balaparameshwara Rao (Gannavaram), Ramakrishnanada Swami ( East Godavari, Purushothampatnam) , Kothapalli Nagamani ( Rajahmundry) Chodavarapu Suryanarayana (Eluru , Vangayagudem), Ramullamma (Eluru, Hanuman Nagar), Kati Nagaraju (Eluru ,NTR Colony).
“I have never seen such a case in my career, where a serial killer has committed so many crimes, all murders within a span of just two years. Ten murders in two years. I don’t think the city itself has seen such a case.”West Godavari Superintendent of Police Navadeep Singh
How Cyanide Shiva Was Pinned Down
The most recent killing was that of K Nagaraju, a government teacher. The man died shortly after he left home with cash and jewellery. He was going to deposit it in a bank but was soon found dead with the money missing. Though it seemed like he died of a brain stroke or heart failure, the family members suspected foul play and insisted on an autopsy.
The post-mortem hadn’t revealed cyanide poisoning, said a senior police officer.
CCTV footage near the site of Nagaraju’s murder helped the cops zero in on Simhadri.
Tracking his call records, the police found that Simhadri had tricked the victim into paying Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh in exchange for a ‘rice-pulling coin’. They also found the contacts of 10 others who had died in suspicious circumstances in the last two years.
The police then ordered for a deep-dive investigation and FIRs have been filed in four of the cases. He is accused of killing his own grandmother and sister-in-law.
Just a few days back, a horrific truth was unraveled in Koodathayi town in Kerala’s Kozhikode, when the Kerala police arrested 47-year-old Jolly Joseph for allegedly murdering six members of her family. From 2002 and 2016, she killed her victims using cyanide, including a one-year-old child.
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