Serial killer Siva showed no remorse, says inspector

Cop who cracked the case speaks about his encounter with killer

ELURU:  No one would believe that behind the innocent-looking face of Velanki Simhadri alias Siva lied the face of a cold-blooded murderer, who took not one but 10 lives in a span of 20 months, said Eluru Rural circle inspector Anusuri Srinivas Rao, who cracked the case of serial killing. 

Speaking to TNIE, Rao said he was left shell-shocked when Simhadri started narrating the way in which he carried out the murders. “There seems to be no enmity between him and the victims. His only objective was to make money in an easy way,” he said. The inspector said no one who saw and interacted with Simhadri would believe that he was capable of murdering people in such calculating and cold-blooded manner, which is proven by the fact that most of his victims were his friends or relatives.

“He studied only up to Class-10 and worked as a watchman at an apartment and did odd jobs like ironing clothes. Five years ago, he took up a real estate business and expanded his circle of contacts. During that time he got in touch with rice-pulling gangs and influenced by their ways to become rich, he too started planning to amass wealth in an easy manner,” explained the police officer.

The weapon he chose was cyanide-laced prasadam and the first victim to fall for his cold-blooded method was 63-year-old Vallabhaneni Umamaheswara Rao of Nuzvid on February 15, 2018.  “When he found that no one suspected his hand and saw it as a natural death, Simhadri started using the same method to target his subsequent victims,” Srinivas Rao said.

According to the police officer, Simhadri used to behave in a manner in which no one would suspect him. After murdering the victim, he even used to consle the family members of the victims and attend funerals.
“It was death of Nagaraju on October 16 that exposed his involvement. We questioned him as he was the last person to call the victim after we found the cause of death in the post-mortem report. As we found his answers and behaviour a little odd, we started questioning him using our methods and when he started narrating the murder he carried out, it was our turn to be shocked,” the case investigating officer said. 

Rao said he was still unable to digest the fact that such an ordinary-looking man murdered people without any remorse. “I am happy that I was the one to have arrested him and put a stop to the spree of murders,” he said. Meanwhile, the police have sought custody of Simhadri, suspecting that there could be more facts to unveil.

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