Serial rapist and murderer Cyanide Mohan was sentenced to death in one of the rape and murder cases against him by a Mangaluru court on Thursday. The VI Additional District Sessions court was hearing the case of the rape and murder of an anganwadi worker. On Tuesday, sessions judge Syedunnisa convicted Mohan of rape and murder and sentenced him to death. Mohan killed the anganwadi worker from Balepuni village in Dakshina Kannada district’s Bantwal taluk in October 2005.
According to The Hindu, the death sentence will be executed only after the Karnataka High Court confirms it. The rape and murder at Balepuni was the 17th case being heard against Cyanide Mohan and the Karnataka High Court had overturned death penalty in two previous convictions. It had reduced the sentence to life imprisonment and five years of rigorous imprisonment. However, in one case, the High court confirmed the death sentence. Three other rape and murder cases he was booked for are currently under trial.
The death sentence was awarded for the murder charge and sessions judge also allotted 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 the charge of abduction. Mohan was also sentenced to seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 for the rape conviction. The judge also ordered the Karnataka government to compensate the victim’s younger sister through the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Deccan Herald reported.
Cyanide Mohan is currently serving his sentence at the Hindalga Central Prison in Karnataka’s Belagavi. He was on video conference when the sentence was pronounced, the Hindu report added. The victim was cremated and an unnatural death report was filed when her body was found in 2005. The case, was linked to Mohan after his arrest in September 2009.
After ‘Cyanide’ Mohan’s arrest, police suspected that he was involved in at least 32 murders. All of his victims were women and he killed them by giving them pills laced with cyanide.
Mohan would promise marriage, rape them, take them to the nearest bus stand where he would ask them to take a birth control pill. The pill was laced with cyanide. The women went to the restrooms to take the pill as he had told them it would make them sick.