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Tuesday, Jan 01, 2008
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Woman accused of six murders arrested

Special Correspondent

She promised them help before taking away their jewellery

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

IN POLICE NET: Bangalore City Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao (right) and his officials with Mallika, in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: The Kalasipalyam police have arrested Mallika (43) who allegedly murdered six women from lower middle-class families by poisoning them with cyanide and robbed them of their gold jewellery.

The police arrested Mallika while she was trying to sell gold jewellery at a pawnbroker’s shop on Kalasipalyam Main Road here.

On the pretext of conducting special pujas to get rid of their problems, Mallika had taken these unsuspecting women to temple towns in Bangalore Rural, Ramanagaram, Tumkur and Mandya districts and poisoned them with cyanide she had procured from employees of goldsmiths, the police said.

Though five of these murders had taken place in quick succession in the past three months, Mallika’s first victim, Mamatha, was poisoned in 1999.

Cheating

According to the police, in the mid-1990s, Mallika, a school dropout, cheated several people who had invested in a chit scheme she was running while she was residing in Kempegowdanagar. As she was stealing money and valuables to repay the investors, her husband and children deserted her in 1998. She then was living with her aged mother at Badikatte village, off Kaggalipura, on Kanakapura Road on the outskirts of the city.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) K.V. Sharathchandra said Mallika was a regular visitor to the Kabbalamma Temple near Sathnur in Ramanagaram district, the Hatti Lakkamma Temple in Yediyur in Tumkur district, the Jalageramma Temple in Hoskote in Bangalore Rural district and the Kempamma Temple in Chikka Koratagere in Tumkur district.

First case

The police said that Mamatha (30) met Mallika at Jalageramma Temple in Hoskote and, on her advice, organised a “mandala puja” at her house on October 29, 1999. She was killed as she sat praying. On November 1, 2007, Mallika took Elizabeth (52), a widow residing in Banaswadi, to Kabbalamma Temple saying her missing grandson would return if a “mandala puja” was conducted there. Elizabeth was poisoned at the temple.

She lured another widow, Yashodamma (60) of Yelahanka, an asthmatic, with the promise of a cure and on December 10, poisoned her at the Siddaganga Math near Kyathasandra.

Five days later, she took Muniyamma (60) of Chikkabommasandra in Yelahanka to the Siddalingeshwara Temple at Yediyur and murdered her at a hotel. She had promised Muniyamma, who used to sing devotional songs at various temples, that she would record her songs and help her in earning more money. On December 18, Mallika strangled and poisoned Nagaveni (30) of Hebbal, who wanted a son, at a dormitory at the Sri Ghati Subramanya in Doddaballapur taluk in Bangalore Rural. “Nagaveni’s younger sister was Mallika’s next target,” Mr. Sharathchandra said.

Mallika had also murdered Pillamma (60) of the Kemapamma Temple at Hebbal here, at a hotel room near Vaidyanatheshwara temple in Maddur on October 2007, the police said.

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