Cyanide Mohan, from a simple school teacher to the man who Terroized whole of Karnataka State

7 min readJul 28, 2024

18 June 2009, in Hassan, a city in South Karnataka, between 7–8 am, a huge crowd gathered outside the Lady’s Toilet near the bus stand. Because whoever was inside was not opening the door. People got suspicious when the door was not opened for a long time, and soon the police arrived. When the door does not open even after repeated calls from the police, the police decide to break inside. The sight inside shocked the police. Inside was the body of a girl who had worn the bride’s clothes. The girl was lying on the ground and thick white foam was coming out of her mouth. which was pointing toward poisoning, but despite the girl being in bridal attire, the police could not recover any jewelry from her.

The Post-mortem of the girl is soon done and the report confirms cyanide poisoning. That was the time when CCTV cameras were not so prevalent. Days passed and no one came forward to identify the dead body. Apart from this, no one filed a missing complaint matching the description of the woman. So the police considered it a case of suicide and closed the investigation. Completely unaware of the fact that in the last 6 years, more bodies have been found in different cities.

The Crime

It was on June 17, 2009, when a girl from Bormaru village of Bantwal taluka, Dakshina Kannada district, whose name was Anita Mulya 22 years old went missing. There were 5 members in Anita’s family. Anita’s father was a farmer and her mother used to help her father on his farm. there was also an elder sister and a brother, who were already married. Anita herself used roll bidi to earn money. her family was facing some problems in providing dowry for Anita.

A real Photo of Anitha Mulya, Victim of Cyanide Mohan.

According to Anita’s mother Kusuma, she and Anita’s father Dugappa had gone to work at the farm on June 17, and her brother Madhav was out of the village. Anita was alone at home. On reaching home in the evening, they came to know that Anita was missing. It turns out that Anita took about 8 grams of gold, Rs 5000/-, and a mobile phone which Madhav had gifted her a few days ago. Soon her family members and neighbors start searching in the surrounding areas. but even after 2 days, there was no trace of Anita, so her family filed a missing complaint at a nearby Police Station. Unaware of the fact that Anita’s body was found a day earlier in Hassan, about 160 km away.

As per Anita’s father Dugappa, the Investigating Officer dismissed them saying that Anita might have become a victim of Love Jihad and she had married into some other religion. this was the time when communal violence was at its peak in South Karnataka. soon local Hindu organizations along with the villagers started protesting against the police. after 3 months of continuous protests, people gave an ultimatum to the police. That if Anita is not found then they burn down the police station. The police borrowed some time and soon they formed a special investigation team.

The Investigation

During their investigation, when the police looked at Anita’s call records, they came across a number, that Anita had talked for a few days before her disappearance. Also, the police came to know that the number belonged to Shridhar of Medikeri which is nearby. when the police went to Sridhar, they discovered that his sister Kaveri was using this number before she disappeared in February 2009. Police officers are now suspecting involvement of a Human Trafficking racket. While scrutinizing Kaveri’s phone records, police found a shocking thing, like Anita, Kaveri was also in contact with a girl named Pushp, just before her disappearance and had long conversations with her late at night. When the police reached Pushp’s house, they found out that Pushpa had also been missing for the past year. Through careful scrutiny, police established a chain of 20 missing women cases. Karnataka Police was shocked to see how a simple case can reveal such a big crime. The police still believed in the Involvement of a human trafficking gang.

While investigating all these numbers, the police also noticed another very strange pattern that all these mobiles had been active at some point in the same location of a village called Darelkate, located outside Mangalore. The police soon raided the village. During the raid, get to know that Anita’s mobile had just been activated in that village. he turned out to be a 16-year-old boy named Dhanush. Dhanush told the police that this phone was a gift from his uncle Mohan Kumar. This was the first time Mohan Kumar’s name appeared in this investigation. The police started monitoring Mohan Kumar. The police come to know that Mohan is still in contact with a girl and talks to her at length every night.

Police Arrest of Cyniede Mohan

The police contacted the girl and convinced her to invite Mohan to meet. Soon Police arrested Mohan Kumar near Mangalore on 21 October 2009. During a search of Mohan’s house, the police recovered several mobile phones, some jewelry, forged government office stamps, and a government office letter-head through which he used to depict himself as a government official. Some amount of cyanide is also found and Mohan was immediately taken into police custody. Mohan soon breaks down under strict interrogation and confesses to killing 32 women including Anita in the same manner. out of which the murder of 20 is confirmed by the chain of phone numbers established by the police.

Previous Crime History

According to the police, Mohan Kumar, who worked as a teacher in a Karnataka Government school from 1983 to 2003, had earlier been arrested in 2003 for throwing a girl down from the bridge of Netravathi river. The fishermen nearby saved the girl, and Mohan was beaten and handed over to the police. In jail, he met a jeweler who told him that he was being sentenced due to improper disposal of cyanide, which is used to clean jewelry. Mohan is shocked to hear this and goes out to get cyanide disguised as a jeweler after he is released from jail after a month.

Confession and Prosecution

Mohan admitted in his confession that he always met these women near bus stops. he also targeted women who were minding their own business. According to Mohan, Starting conversations with such women is very easy. once the conversation starts, Mohan introduces himself with a fake name and exchanges numbers with them. Then Mohan would win her trust by talking to her at length for several days and then convince her to run away and get married to him. Once the girl would come with him, he would take her to a nearby city and have illicit relations with her in some lodge. then the next day he would convince her to go to the temple with him, leaving all her jewelry in the room. On the pretext of going to the temple, he would take her to a nearby bus stand and then he would give Cyanide Pills disguised as contraceptive pills. Mohan would often ask her to go to the women’s toilet and take this pill stating that after taking it she may have to use the washroom. once the girl went inside and consumed the pill, she would die instantly. Mohan used to wait near the toilet for 30 minutes and then check out with his luggage, jewelry, and money.

By the time Mohan was arrested, he had already married 3 times. his first wife divorced him in the 90’s, but he was living in different cities with his second wife Manjula, and third wife Sridevi.

The police filed 20 different murder cases against Mohan in the lower court of Mangalore. also, they prepared a list of about 49 witnesses who were ready to testify against Mohan. Among them was the only survivor of Cyanide Mohan, She was a resident of Bantwal, and her testimony was crucial for the court decision.

Mohan denied all the allegations citing that only 2 girls’ post-mortem reports mention the cyanide poisoning. But on 21 DEC 2013, the lower court of Mangalore sentenced Mohan to Death for the murder of Anita, Leelawati, and Sunanda. Which was later turned by Karnataka High Court to life imprisonment till death.

Conclusion

Media later criticized Karnataka Police by saying that out of these 20 dead bodies, 8 dead bodies were found only in the toilet of Mysuru Lashkar Mohalla bus stand and 5 others were found in the toilet of Kempe Gowda bus stop in Bangalore, yet Police failed to establish a link between these cases.

It has been almost 15 years since the arrest of Mohan and the police had already found most of the bodies. But the bodies of Meenakshi (25), Aarti (22), and Baby Naik (25) are still missing. It remains a big mystery for the Karnataka Police.