Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 10: Cyanide Mohan, who earned notoriety after allegation that he had killed over 20 ladies by luring them with offer of marriage and then giving them cyanide pills in the guise of birth control pills, after spending a night with them surfaced in the media a few years ago, has approached the high court, contending that he is innocent.

"The prosecution lacks any evidences to prove that I murdered the women concerned. Police personnel had obtained my statement on these lines under threat," Mohan said in the high court. Mohan has been arguing the cases he has been facing, himself in the high court, as he had done in respect all cases he has been facing in the subordinate court.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha was hearing a petition filed by the high court registrar seeking confirmation of death sentence awarded to Mohan by Dakshina Kannada district sessions court relating to killing of three ladies with cyanide pills. Mohan told the high court bench that there is no substance in the contention that he had killed these three ladies. "Police personnel had registered first information reports against me merely on the basis of records of telephonic calls. There are no eyewitnesses. After arresting me, the police got certain statements executed by me under duress," he claimed.

Mohan contended that the woman who he has been accused of killing in Hassan bus stand had died out of bursting of her veins while another woman had died by consuming insecticide. He argued that he does not have cyanide and the persecution has no evidence to prove that he had handed over cyanide pills to the women in question. He appealed to the bench that he is innocent.

Special public prosecutor, in his argument, said that the accused had killed 20 women with cyanide at various places like Mangaluru, Hassan and Mysuru, including some bus stands and he had introduced himself to his victims by various names. Almost all the murders were committed in toilets as the women were asked to consume tablets by going into the toilets. He said that the prosecution has enough evidences including circumstantial ones, to prove that the accused was guilty of murders and that the lower court had given him death sentences in case of three murders.

The fourth additional district and sessions court here had awarded death sentence to Mohan on December 21, 2013, relating to the killing Anita Barimar at KSRTC bus stand on June 18, 2009, Leela Vamadapadavu on September 10, 2005 at Mysuru bus stand, and Sunanda, on February 11, 2008.

Mohan, who hails from Kanyana inBantwal taluk, worked as physical education teacher in a government school. He had remaine dcontinuoussly absent from lhs duties since 2003. He was accused of getting himself introduced to single women past their marriageable age at conventions, bus stnds, etc, promising them of marrying, escorting them lodges in different towns where he gave different names, and indulged in sex with them. The next day, he was accused of giving cyanide pills by saying that they were contraceptives, to the women. Once the women entered the toilets, he used to lock the doors from outside and escape with valuablel sincluding ornaments belonging to these women, the prosecution had said.

The bench, before adjourning the hearing to Tuesday, asked the public prosecutor to prepare his arguments well. It noted that in the arguments placed on Tuesday, evidence of murder was not furnished. It also observed that the petitioner seems to have studied the case well during over seven years since he was arrested and come prepared well.

The serial killings came to light after Bantwal police, who doggedly pursued a murder case, caught hold of Mohan during October 2009. It was said that although the prosecution has details of 20 murders, Mohan would have killed several more with the same modus operandi.