Mangaluru court sentences serial killer 'Cyanide' Mohan to death

A court in Mangaluru has sentenced a notorious serial killer to death for the murder of an Anganwadi worker from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district in 2005. The sixth Additional District and Sessions Judge Sayeedunnisa on Thursday, October 24, handed down the death penalty to 'Cyanide' Mohan for raping and murdering the woman at the Kempegowda bus station in Bengaluru on October 22, 2005.

Convicted for various offences, including murder

The judge had on Tuesday convicted Mohan for various offences, including murder, in the case. He has also been sentenced to various prison terms, including 10 years for abduction, seven years for rape, 10 years for poisoning, five years for robbery, 10 years for voluntary causing hurt in committing robbery, one year for cheating and seven years for destroying evidence. All sentences will run concurrently till the death sentence is confirmed by the high court, public prosecutor Judith O M Crasta said. The judge also directed the district legal services authority to pay compensation to the victim's sister.

Already been convicted in 17 murder cases

This is the fourth murder case in which he has been awarded death sentence. In two previous verdicts of capital punishment, the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and five years' imprisonment by the high court. With the latest verdict, he has already been convicted in 17 murder cases. Trials in three other murder cases are still on.

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Finally arrested by Bantwal rural police in 2009

After a series of cases of luring women with an offer of marriage on false identities, rape, and killing them with 'contraceptive' pills laced with cyanide, Mohan was finally arrested by Bantwal rural police in 2009. In the latest case in which the verdict has been delivered, he got acquainted with the Anganwadi worker from Bantwal, took her to Bengaluru on the promise of marriage, had sex with her and gave her a cyanide pill at the bus station the next day convincing her that it was a contraceptive pill. Mohan had adopted the same modus operandi in all the murder cases registered against him. 

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