District Court Gives Life Sentence to Accused in Mass Murder

KAKINADA: An additional district and sessions court in Eluru has awarded life sentence to an accused, Vellanki Simhadri alias Shiva, of Eluru in 10 cases of cyanide-induced murder, one after another.

The case created a sensation in 2019. The court handed down 10 years’ jail to another accused, Aminullah Babu alias Babu of Vijayawada, in the same case on a charge of supplying the cyanide.

According to the police, Vellanki Simhadri was addicted to a lavish lifestyle and he resorted to several illegal means to earn money. He approached people in the guise of a real estate agent, offered to buy rice pulling coins and gemstones, and promised to double their money and gold by assuring them of high returns.

“He built trust with them and asked them to bring money for investment. After receiving the money at a pre-arranged location, he killed them with cyanide supplied to him by Babu.”

“Under the pretext of religious offerings, he mixed the cyanide into what he called a Prasadam. In each case, as soon as the victim consumed this, he or she died instantly. The accused would steal the victim’s money and gold and leave the spot without a trace,” police said.

In 2019, he befriended a PET teacher Kati Nagaraju of Madepalli village and promised him to arrange a rice pulling coin, claiming it would yield good profits and double his money and gold.

“Simhadri asked him to bring money. When the victim brought it, Simhadri gave him the prasadam mixed with cyanide, telling him that it was brought from Jerusalem. After consuming this, Nagaraju collapsed. Simhadri escaped from there by taking `2 lakh and 5 sovereigns of gold from him,” police said.

The deceased’s relatives lodged a complaint with 3-town police of Eluru, who then investigated the incident. During the trial, the two accused confessed that they gave poisonous prasadam to Hindus in the name of Tirupati, if they were Hindus; and Jerusalem Prasadam, if they were Christians.

The ten victims the accused killed were M Ramulamma, Kati Nagaru, C Suryanarayana, S Nagamani, K Raghavamma, Ramakrishnananda Swamy, Vallabhaneni Uma Maheswara Rao, P Tavitayya, Kadiyala Bala Venkateswara Rao and Gandikota Venkata Bhaskara Rao.

As the charges proved, the judge sentenced Simhadri to life term under Section 3 (2)(v) of SC, ST and ten years’ jail under section 392 and a fine of `6,000. Accused Babu got 10 years’ jail and `2,000 fine.

Eluru SP, Shiva Kishore, said he had set up a special court monitoring cell to keep track of the case, which helped in the case’s orderly progress.