Police nab teacher responsible for 18 rape-cum-murders

A special team of the Karnataka Police claim to have nailed the “serial killer” responsible for rape and murder of 18 women aged between 22-35 in and around the areas of Indian city of Mangalore, Karnataka. A teacher by profession for 23 years, Mohan Kumar alias Bhaskara alias Ananda, aged 46 used to lure young women assuring them of marriage. Later after having sexual relation he would trick the women into consuming cyanide tablets which he gave to them claiming to be anti-pregnancy pills.

He used to dump the bodies of his victims at bus stations which made the deaths look like suicide by women in distress. Since he chose his victims from randomly with no earlier links and had no direct contact with the victim's family, he was never a suspect in any of the cases. The bodies of his victims have been found at various locations till now. Ten victims were detected at the Mysore bus stand, three at the Madikeri bus stand, two each at Hassan and Bangalore bus stand while one was found at the Kollur temple in Udupi district.

He was booked in 2003 for the first time in a case of attempted murder when he tried to push a girl named Rathna off the Nethravathi Bridge at Dharmasthala after she refused to marry him. He was later let-off due to inadequate evidence against him which emboldened him to go ahead full-scale.

The police started zeroing on Mohan after they received the case of a girl named Anitha (13th victim) who went missing on June 17. The special investigation team tracked down Anitha’s cellphone to a person who led the team to Mohan. Mohan had made several calls from the phone to his other victims too. Police has also zeroed down on a person in Puttur who supplied cyanide to the accused. Police plans to treat him as an abettor in the cases.

Mohan is educated to Pre-University level and joined government service as a teacher in a primary school on temporary basis in 1980. After being in and out of service and getting transferred to many places in the district for 23 years, he quit his job in 2003. Mohan has four children from two wives. He got married three times. While he divorced his first wife whom he married in 1987 he currently lives alternately with his second and third wives at Uppala and Deralakatte respectively.

While the police authorities are convinced and claim to have evidence in place, Mohan’s family, friends and neighbors refuse to accept him as a killer. Police have seized eight cyanide tablets, four mobile phones and gold jewelry (belonging to Anitha) from his possession. Though his third wife has a different story to tell:

Mohan’s second wife also voiced similar sentiments while adding that she was not aware that he had relations with any other girls. She said that when she came to know about the third wife they had a quarrel but he convinced her and she compromised. He would stay for two days with her while with the third wife for rest of the time where he worked at a paddy field and arecanut plantation.

Mohan’s old mother also was in a state of shock and said that after she lost her husband when Mohan was a young boy, Mohan has been a good son and took care of her.

The police has already lodged a case with one count of murder and rape for the latest case, they wil also reopen the other 17 in light of the fresh evidence. The Director General of Police Ajai Kumar Singh is likely to reward the team during his impending visit to the city over the next few days.