Mangalore: Serial Killer Who Accounted for 18 girls Arrested
Pics: Spooty Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network- Mangalore (RS/SP)
Mangalore, Oct 21: A serial killer, who has allegedly confessed to having killed 18 girls during the past five years, was arrested by the Bantwal police on Wednesday October 21 from near Deralakatte near here, informed inspector general of police (western range), Gopal Hosur.
The arrested man, identified as Mohan Kumar alias Ananda (46), is a resident of Kanyana in Bantwal taluk. The policemen said that he has confessed to have committed 18 murders, and that all of his victims were girls. The offender had been serving as a teacher in a primary school near Angadi in Kanyana in Bantwal taluk, on a temporary basis from 1980 and quit his job in the year 2003. After quitting his job, he got engaged in criminal offences since 2005, snuffing away the lives of 18 young girls till 2009.
This has come as an extremely shocking and heartbreaking news for the civilized society, as the killer targetted innocent, unsuspecting girls from the poor families, and trapped them with the intention of raping them, said Gopal Hosur, adding that the alleged killer used to earn the confidence of the girls by offering to marry them. He married the girls who got trapped by his innocent façade and sweet words. As pre-planned, he would kill the girls a day after the marriage by offering them cyanide tablet, claiming it to be a medicine to prevent pregnancy.
The investigation of a case related to a missing girl named Anitha (22) resident of Barimaru village, gave the policemen, clues about the involvement of the offender. Working on the clues they got in this case, the Bantwal police traced the mobile list and got the contacts of the girl and found that the mobile set of that girl was used by this offender and later he was traced, said superintendent of police (SP), Dr A Subrahmanyeshwar Rao.
Out of the 18 girls, four belonged to Bantwal taluk, two to Sullia, three to Puttur, one to Moodbidri, two to Beltangady and one to Mangalore, while the other five were from Kasaragod district. The murders were committed at various places like ten at Mysore bus stand, three at Madikeri bus stand, two at Hassan bus stand, two at Bangalore bus stand and one at Kollur temple in Udupi district. The arrested claims that he has been unable to recollect the names of some of his victims. As such, the policemen believe that there are chances of more murder cases emerging after the investigation, said the SP.
The offender has confessed that he used to commit the crime with the sole objective of gaining access to the jewellery worn by the girls and also to satiate his sexual urge, said Chandragupta, assistant superintendent of police, Puttur division, who led the investigation along with Bantwal police inspector, Nanjunde Gowda, sub inspector Shivaprakash and his team.
The offender had married thrice and divorced his first wife, who was from Shiradi and the second and third wives live in separate houses, one at Deralakatte and other one at Uppala in Kasaragod district.
Statement by the SP:
`The modus operandi employed by the arrested is finding a target and immediately approaching the girls, by claiming that she resembles someone whom he knows well and then striking a conversation about her caste and family back ground. And finally he used to offer to marry the girl without dowry. While a few girls rejected his proposal, in most of the cases he approached, he succeeded in his plan, said the SP.
One fine day, he would invite the girl to a temple to complete the marriage rituals. After the ritual, he accommodated the girls at a lodge and forced them to have sex with him. The next morning, he used to take the girl to the local bus stand on the pretext of visiting a temple and before leaving the lodge, he used to ask the girls to remove the jewellery. At the bus stand, he would tell the girl that they had unprotected sex the previous night and therefore, demanded them to consume a medicine in power form he used to claim, would prevent the risk of pregnancy, inside the toilet of the bus stand. The innocent girls used to trust him and consumed the powder given by him, without knowing that it was cyanide, he explained.
After the girls collapsed due to the poison they had consumed, he managed to run away, and the girls were shifted to hospitals, he said, adding that these cases were registered as unnatural deaths and in most of the cases, these were recorded as unsolved cases.
These incidents happened at Mysore, Madikeri, Bangalore and Hassan bus stands and one near the Kollur temple, he said.
The gold ornaments belonging to Anitha, one of the missing girls, have been seized from him along with four mobile phones and eight tablets, he explained, adding that the provider of cyanide to the killer will soon be arrested, citing him as the abettor of the crime.
The unfortunate girls who were slain by the culprits were, Baby Nayak (25) resident of Peraje Near Sullia, Sharada (24) Kedila in Puttur taluk, Kaveri (30) Sampaje in Sullia, Pushpa(26) Mulleria in Kasaragod, Vinutha (24) Puttur, Hema (24) Mittur in Bantwal, Anitha (22) Barimar, Yashoda (26) resident of Madanthyar in Belthangady, Vijayalakshmi (26) Kasaragod, Sarojini (27) Uppala, Shashikala (28) Kariangala in Bantwal, Sunanda (25) Peruvaje near Sullia, Lelavathi (32)resident of Vamada Padav, Shantha (35) resident of Kankanady, Vanitha (22) Nelyady and Sujatha (28) Mucchur near Bajpe. The names of two more girls, both of whom are from Kasargod, are yet to be ascertained from the offender.
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