Real Mohan Kumar aka 'Cyanide Mohan' is a serial killer

MANGALURU: For a couple of hours on Monday, confusion reigned in top Intelligence and police circles in Maharashtra with some officials claiming that a serial killer from Karnataka, Mohan Kumar alias Cyanide Mohan, had been arrested. The confusion arose after reports in a section of the media that the serial killer had fled to Indonesia.

Mohan Kumar, who killed 20 young women with cyanide between 2003 and 2009, was awarded the death sentence in 2013. He is lodged at the Belagavi Central Prison.

Kumar, a teacher, would befriend girls with the line "Do I know you? I have seen you somewhere." If the girl respon ded positively , he would introduce himself as an eligible bachelor. After a couple of meetings, he would propose marriage and persuade the girl to elope with him. Promising to marry her the next morning, he would spend a night with her in a lodge.

He would next take the unsuspecting girl to a bus stand and make her take two cyanide pills, claiming they were contraceptives.

Mohan Kumar convinced his victims to swallow the pills in washrooms of bus stands by telling them they would throw up immediately . After they dropped dead, he would disappear with their gold jewellery.