Andhra Pradesh | Cyanide killings rock Guntur, 3 women arrested for four murders

In a chilling reminder of Koodathayi cyanide poisoning case of Kerala, the Guntur police in Andhra Pradesh have arrested three serial killers accused of murdering four women using the same modus operandi.

Addressing a press conference, Guntur SP Satish Kumar said an unidentified woman was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Chebrolu a couple of months back. The police registered a case, constituted two special teams, and initiated a probe. Subsequently, the deceased was identified as Nagoorbi of Yadlalingaiah Colony in Tenali town. The police zeroed in on several suspects and also laid hands on some startling facts, using advanced technology during the investigation.

The accused were detained for interrogation under extra-judicial confession. They were identified as M Rajini (40), M Venkateswari (32), and Rajini’s mother G Ramanamma (60).

Criminal background

Interestingly, they didn’t spill the beans initially and managed to escape. They were finally nabbed when the auto driver, who had ferried the deceased just before her demise, disclosed that the trio had accompanied Nagoorbi in the same vehicle. They later confessed to killing her with cyanide-laced alcohol before slipping away with her gold ornaments and cash.

Talking about their modus operandi, the police official said the accused would befriend other women, gain their trust, and lure them on tours to isolated areas where they would give them cyanide-laced soft drinks, kill them, and steal their gold ornaments.

As per media reports, the main accused, M Rajini, was also involved in cybercrimes in Cambodia. She, along with her mother, had killed her mother-in-law, Subbalakshmi, for property in 2022, and Nagamma (60), a resident of Tenali, in August 2023 to escape repaying a loan. They, along with one Bhudevi, also killed Bhudevi’s husband, Moshe, for torturing her. They also tried to kill three other women in separate incidents but didn’t succeed.

The Koodathayi killings

The Koodathayi cyanide killings refer to a sequence of suspicious deaths in Koodathayi, located in the Kozhikode district of Kerala. These incidents involved six deaths over a period of 14 years from 2002 to 2016; they were investigated as late in 2019.

The case drew considerable attention from both the media and the public, eventually leading to the arrest of Jolly Joseph. A 47-year-old homemaker, she deceived everyone by falsely claiming to be a lecturer at the National Institute of Technology Kozhikode and allegedly carried out six murders using cyanide as poison.