Cyanide Siva overshadows Kerala killer with 10 murders

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, November 6

Kerala’s Jolly Amma Joseph case has been overshadowed with the arrest of a serial killer who poisoned 10 persons with cyanide over 20 months.

Velanki Simhadri (38), alias Cyanide Siva, has been arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Police for 10 murders. He used cyanide to eliminate his victims.

Those murdered included Siva’s grandmother and his sister-in-law. He gave cyanide to his victims as “prasad” to help them get rid of their problems. Once the victim died, he would steal his gold and cash.

West Godavari Superintendent of Police Navdeep Singh said, “Relatives of a victim, Kati Nagaraju, got suspicious about the cause of death that took place on October 16. At the time of his death, Nagaraju was carrying with him Rs 2 lakh and five gold sovereigns. But when the body was found, gold and cash were missing”.

Police sources said, “After a formal police complaint was filed, CCTV footage retracing Nagaraju’s movement was scanned and it was seen that Nagaraju was talking to the accused.”

“Initially, he admitted to Nagaraju’s murder only, but on examining his call record, we found he was linked to several other deaths. He later admitted to have killed nine others,” said SP Navdeep Singh. Siva had suffered major losses in property business. To make good those losses, he murdered his victims by administering them poison and gathered around Rs 24 lakh in cash and gold worth 35.25 sovereigns.