The accused in police custody.

ELURU: In a case that may turn out to be more sinister than Kerala’s ‘Cyanide Jolly’, Andhra Pradesh police have arrested an alleged serial killer who murdered as many as 10 people in just 20 months. Police believe that he planned to kill at least 20 more people.

The Eluru police on Tuesday arrested Vellanki Simhadri alias Siva, 38, for allegedly killing all his victims using the same modus operandi as Jolly Joseph of Kerala – cyanide poisoning . Jolly is accused of killing six of her family members over 14 years. Siva, on the other hand, was virtually killing one person every two months since Feb 2018. Among Siva’s victims were his own grandmother, his sister-in-law, his landlady and local religious preacher Sri Ramakrishnanda of Purushotapatnam Ashram near Rajahmundry.

Siva, a watchman-turned-real estate dealer, lured his victims by claiming he possessed magnetic rice grains, magical coins and a two-headed snake that would help them double their money and cure chronic ailments, such as diabetes. Police officials claimed that Siva had a list on at least another 20 ‘clients’ who he could have killed. According to police, Siva’s killings started after he suffered heavy losses in the real estate business. To recover the money, he took to cheating people by luring them with the promise of magically increasing their wealth and unearthing hidden treasure troves for them.

Officials claim he took to poisoning his victims because he believed cyanide would leave no traces.Siva would ask his victims to bring their money and gold to him. Once they would reach a secluded spot, he would offer them prasadam laced with potassium cyanide. He would tell them that the prasadam would provide instant results. Once the victims died of poisoning, he would take away their money and gold. He had stolen Rs 24.60 lakh and 35 sovereigns of gold. Siva purchased a plot and built a house in Eluru with the money he stole from his victims. He moved into the new house two months ago. Police have recovered Rs 1.63 lakh and gold ornaments from him so far.

West Godavari SP Navdeep Singh Grewal told reporters that Siva trapped unsuspecting victims by using a variety of tricks. “He told some of them that he would help them buy magical coins and rice grains while others fell for the money-doubling promise,” Grewal said. “A couple of his victims brought money to purchase Ayurvedic medicine for chronic ailments. While most of his victims were killed with cyanide-laced prasadam, people suffering from chronic ailments were administered the poison in ‘medicine’.”

Grewal added that Siva managed to escape detection for two years because there were no visible injuries on the bodies of his victims and their family members considered the deaths to be natural.

Siva was finally caught after the murder of a physical education teacher, K Nagaraju, in Eluru on October 16. His brother Venkata Ramana had lodged a missing person’s complaint the next day. Ramana told the police that Nagaraju left home with Rs 2 lakh and gold ornaments.

Investigators started scouring CCTV footage from cameras near the murder site and zeroed in on Siva who had lured Nagaraju with the promise of helping him buy magical rice-pulling coins. He later told cops about his other murders as well.

C yanide seller in cop custody too

Siva got potassium cyanide thrice from Ameenullah Babu (60) of Vijayawada who took it from his brother Asad’s nickel-electroplating workshop where cyanide is used. Ameenullah has been arrested and cops also recovered plastic tins containing potassium cyanide from the duo.



In Video: After Jolly, it’s ‘Cyanide Siva’: Andhra Pradesh man held for poisoning 10