Hyderabad: Mupparapu Ajith Kumar, a UK-based NRI had planned to kill his wife Dr. M. Shirisha and her family members, by poisoning them with arsenic. All of them fell critically ill. Shirisha’s mother Uma Maheshwari died while undergoing treatment but Shirisha and her father remained ill. After first presuming it to be a case of food poisoning, they found on testing that there was an extremely high amount of arsenic in the body. Suspecting the role of Ajith Kumar, a pharmacist, they lodged a complaint with Miyapur police.
During investigation, police found that Ajith with the help of Shirisha’s cousin Purnendhar Rao, made several attempts to kill other family members. Police nabbed Purnendhar Rao and five others, who were part of the conspiracy to kill Shirisha and her parents, by injecting poison into their bodies, said ACP Miyapur division P. Narsimha Rao.
The other accused include D. Vinod Kumar, Y. Bhavani Shankar, Bathula Ashok, Basiraju Gopinath, all friends of Purnendhar Rao, and Ramesh, who is the son of Venkat Ramana, who worked as a watchman in the apartment where the victims were staying.
Police found that as Purnendhar Rao did not like Shirisha’s family, he befriended Ajith. Initially, when Ajith came to Purnender, he mixed arsenic in salt and chilli powder. On consuming it Shirisha, her daughter, parents, brother and his newly-wed wife, became sick. Her mother died while undergoing treatment. When there was no improvement in the health of other family members, they went to Amaravati. There the doctors suspected that the deterioration could be due to arsenicosis and referred them for further tests, which established the presence of high levels of arsenic.
Police found Ajith, after flying back to the UK, continued his plan to kill the family. Taking advantage of Purnendher’s dislike towards the family, he roped him in. He brought his friends along. They were all sent to remand, said police.
