ELURU: The families of the victims of the cyanide serial killer Simhadri alias Siva find themselves in an emotional turmoil and are unable to come to terms with the fact that the deaths were not of natural cause. The thought of the kind of trauma the victims must have suffered before their final moments haunt them. Some of them cannot help but blame the police for their inaction.
Siva murdered 10 unsuspecting persons, including three women, by making them eat prasadam laced with cyanide over a period of 20 months in his greed to get rich. Had the One Town police in Eluru taken the complaint lodged by Satyavati, wife of the fifth victim Chodavarapu Suryanarayana, a resident of Vangayagudem, demanding the arrest of Siva, they could have saved the precious lives of the five persons.
Forensic test on 5th victim’s body would have helped cops nail killer
Recounting the events on the fateful day, Satyavati, who is struggling to feed her two children after the death of her husband on April 14, 2018, said Suryanarayana, a clerk in a local finance company, had come home and left immediately after lunch. She came to know about her 33-year-old husband’s death at 9 pm from her neighbours. Though mindboggling news left her in shock, she remembered the fact that Suryanarayana had spent the whole day with Siva and he carried some money. Finding that both the money and gold rings he wore were missing, her first suspicion fell on Siva and the same she complained to the One Town police.
The distraught Satyavati who described Suryanarayana as a loving and caring husband said though police had post-mortem conducted on the body they gave her the report after seven months. Since the report did not point to any poisoning, she insisted on police arresting the serial killer and conducting a deeper probe. Cyanide poisoning cannot be detected through a post-mortem. Only a forensic test would have helped the police unravel the mystery behind the young man’s death. But, Satyavati’s pleas fell on deaf years and the serial killer went on to claim the lives of five more innocent victims in the next few months. Ramakrishna, son of another of Siva’s victim Mulike Ramulamma, said that the way the serial killer put her aged mother to death after gaining their trust and goodwill while being their tenant eroded his faith in fellow human beings.
Siva was a tenant at their house at Hanuman Nagar and gained their trust so much that the victim and her husband Jogi Naidu, a retired railway employee, relied on him for everything as their four sons are living at different places. The aged couple also helped the murderer out of his difficulties. He gave Ramulamma the deadly cyanide on August 30 this year when her husband was visiting Ramakrishna in Vijayawada. Siva took away some gold and cash before coolly conveying the news of her death to her family members. According to Ramakrishana, the killer betrayed no sense of guilt and looked full of sympathy for the bereaved family staying with them till the completion of last rites.
Ramakrishna wants nothing less than death sentence for the man who betrayed their faith and murdered her aged mother. Had circle inspector Indra Srinivas not grown suspicious over the death of the 10th and last victim and his brother Nagaraju, a PET in a school in Eluru, Siva would have carried out his spine-chilling serial murders.
Initially, Nagaraju’s death on October 16 was treated as due to a heart attack and his body was brought to his residence from hospital for final rites, according to Venkata Ramana, another brother of the deceased PET. But, after his wife told him about missing cash and jewellery, Srinivas closely inspected the body and called in police. Siva, who showed no remorse or sympathy for his victims, some of whom were his relatives and a long-time friend Nagaraju, should be hanged, feels Venkata Ramana.