india

Updated: Nov 06, 2019 00:06 IST

The Andhra Pradesh police arrested a 38-year-old man on Tuesday for allegedly killing 10 people in the last 20 months by giving them cyanide-laced “prasadam” and decamping with their cash and valuables, officials said.

Vellanki Simhadri, a resident of Venkatapuram village, committed the murders in Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari districts of the state between February 2018 and October 16, 2019, said superintendent of police Navdeep Singh Garewal.

Garewal said the killings came to light during a murder investigation. K Nagaraju (49), a government teacher from Eluru town, was found dead on October 16. “Nagaraju left his home with ₹2 lakh in cash, along with 50 grams of gold. He told his wife that he was going to the bank. His family approached the police when he didn’t return home. Later, his body was found near a polytechnic college,” the SP said.

During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Nagaraju contacted Simhadri. “We arrested Simhadri on Tuesday morning and he confessed to the killings during interrogation.” Police said Simhadri’s victims included his own grandmother, sister-in-law and landlord. FIRs were registered in only four cases.

Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, Garewal said, after suffering losses in his real estate business, Simhadri started cheating people with claims of possessing supernatural powers. He took money and valuables from the people on the pretext of doubling it through “magical powers”. “

After convincing them to bring their cash and valuables, Simhadri took them to isolated places where he performed puja. After the puja, he used to offer them cyanide-laced “prasadam” (holy offering) and decamp with their ornaments and cash.

“In all, he had robbed the victims of ₹24.60 lakh in cash and 35.25 tolas of gold. The police recovered ₹1.63 lakh cash and a little quantity of gold from Simhadri,” the SP added.