News

Indian Police Arrest Former Teacher Mohan Kumar, Saying He Lured Young Women With Marriage Offers and Killed 18

The search for a missing 22-year-old from Bantwal led police to Kumar through her phone records. Police said 17 earlier deaths would be reinvestigated.

Published

Mohan Kumar in a light blue shirt escorted by Karnataka police officers

Police in Karnataka said a former schoolteacher had lured young women with promises of marriage and then killed them with cyanide. On October 21, 2009, they arrested Mohan Kumar and linked him to 18 deaths.

The arrest came out of the search for Anitha, 22, of Barimar in Bantwal taluk, who went missing on June 17. Her brother reported her missing three days later. A special team tracked calls from her mobile phone, which led investigators to a person using the phone of another missing woman and then to Kumar. He was arrested by a team headed by Puttur Assistant Superintendent of Police Chandragupta. Police said the victims were aged 22 to 35 and that Kumar met them at bus stations in Mysore, Madikeri, Hassan and Bangalore and at the Kollur temple, promising to marry them without a dowry. Because he had no direct contact with the women's families, he had never been a suspect, police said.

Police said they seized eight cyanide tablets, four mobile phones and jewelry belonging to Anitha, and registered a rape and murder case against Kumar at Bantwal. The other 17 cases would be reopened, they said, and a man in Puttur who supplied the cyanide would be treated as an abettor. Kumar had worked as a temporary primary-school teacher from 1980 until he quit in 2003. He was later convicted of murder, and in 2017 the Karnataka High Court confirmed one of his death sentences.

The Times of India reported that police traced Kumar to his home in Deralakatte, while the Karnataka High Court recorded that he was apprehended at the B.C. Road bus stand.

Sources

In the Archive