Serial Killer of Girls

Teacher turns serial killer
TNN 22 October 2009, 04:18am IST

MANGALORE: Eighteen young women aged 22-35-years were the victims of teacher turned serial killer Mohan Kumar. His area of operation spanned the bus stations across Mysore, Madikeri, Hassan, Bangalore, and the Kollur temple. His modus operandi was to prey on young unmarried women luring them with a promise to marry them, have sex with them, and kill them by making them take cyanide as an anti-pregnancy measure.

When police started investigating the case of Anitha (22) of Barimaru in Bantwal who went missing on June 17, they got more than they bargained for. The special team investigating the case tracked the mobile phone of Anitha. A study of the calls from Anitha's phone revealed they were made to another girl, who was also reported missing and were able to track a person who was using the cell phone of a particular missing girl.

It was this person who led the police team headed by Puttur assistant superintendent of police Chandragupta to Mohan Kumar at his residence at Deralakatte near here. SP A S Rao said Mohan, educated up to PUC, joined government service as a teacher in a primary school on temporary basis in 1980. After being in and out of service and getting transferred to many places in the district for 23 years, he quit his job in 2003.

Married three times, Mohan divorced his first wife, whom he married in 1987. He presently lives with his second and third wives at Uppala and Deralakatte respectively. His tryst with criminality started in 2000 when he lured Rathna to marry him. When she refused, Mohan tried to push her off the Nethravathi Bridge at Dharmasthala. He was however acquitted in the court for lack of sufficient evidence against him, the SP said.

IGP (western range) Gopal Hosur, who as DySP had nabbed then famous serial killer Waddara Sankappa in 1985, described Mohan Kumar as a coherent person who knew what he was doing. His target was to 'work on' each of his potential victims for two months, while scouting for his next victim, Hosur said. The details of Mohan's escapades with these women have been shared with the police authorities concerned, he noted.

With no direct contact with the victim's family, the accused was never a suspect in any of these cases, he said. Investigations have led police to a person in Puttur who supplied cyanide to the accused, the IGP said adding that this person would be treated as an abettor. His unique selling proposition with his victims was his assurance to marry them without dowry and this was probably what lured most of them to his deathly embrace.

Police seized 8 cyanide tablets, four mobile phones and jewellery belonging to Anitha. Hosur said a case of rape and murder has been taken up against Mohan Kumar at Bantwal, and all the remaining 17 cases against him would now have to be reopened and reinvestigated in light of the new evidence. The DGP Ajai Kumar Singh is likely to reward the team during his impending visit to the city over the next few days, he said.

Our society is not a very open society. We are not very promiscuous as are the people in the west. Then how or why do the girls fall into the clutches of these serial killers?
Is it the promise of marriage without dowry?
This is one of the fallacies of India.
On the one hand we put women on a high pedestal and worship them as devis or goddesses. On the other hand we demand huge dowries from the girls parents during marriages.And if we find the dowry insufficient, we even murder her by burning her, hanging her or throwing her over the terrace. We then cover up the crime by bribing the police and politicians.
We even abort the female foetus after prenatal tests so that we do not have to bear the dowry burden when the female come to the age of marriage.
The problem is so acute in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan that the ration of boys to girls birth is 1000 to 750.
Boys are now not finding brides and have to import them from Nepal and Bangla desh. The people of the region, instead of asking for jobs or industries in their towns, have started demanding of their politicians to find them girls for marriage.
This murderer, Mohan Kumar, prayed on the insecurity of these girls by promising them marriage without dowry.
The rich and the leaders could take the lead in stopping the dowry evil. However, they are the ones who have ostentatious weddings with thousands of guests which other people can ill afford but are made to follow "to keep up with the Joneses"
I know a person, a distant relative of mine, who himself has nothing.
By Gods grace his son has managed a good education and has a good job.
Now, this person has stated that he does not want a big dowry for his son. He only wants that the wedding should take place in a 5-star hotel, to be paid by the girls side.
Now, anybody who can afford a 5-star hotel wedding for his daughter will not give-away his daughter with just a Sari. He will naturally give plenty of dowry.
People have seen through his duplicity and avoid him as far a marriage is concerned.
His son is still unmarried.