Bengaluru surgeon arrested for murdering doctor wife by injecting anaesthetic drug

Six months after the death of a 29-year-old city-based dermatologist, the Matharahalli police have arrested her husband, a general surgeon, from Udupi on Tuesday on charges of murdering her by allegedly injecting a controlled anaesthetic agent restricted to operation-theatre use, in multiple organs in a bid to kill her and make it look like a natural death.

However, meticulous investigations of the Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams based on the complaint filed by family members helped the police zero in on the accused, identified as Mahendra Reddy.

The accused has been booked for murder and taken into custody to ascertain the exact motive behind the murder.

According to the complaint filed by the father of the deceased, the incident took place on April 21, when Kruthika Reddy reportedly fell ill and was taken to a nearby hospital by her husband, where she was declared ‘brought dead’. Based on the medico-legal case and statements filed by the family members, the Marathahalli police registered a case of unnatural death.

The SOCO visited the house and recovered evidence, including a cannula set, an injection tube, and other medical items. These items were handed over to investigators for forensic analysis. The viscera samples were collected and sent to the FSL to determine the cause of death. The FSL report later confirmed the presence of Propofol, a powerful anaesthetic drug, in the victim’s organs, indicating a criminal act. Based on this report, the victim’s father, K. Munireddy, filed a complaint on October 13, alleging that his son-in-law had murdered his daughter using the anaesthetic drug, according to the police.

The couple got married on May 26 last year and both were working at Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru.

In his complaint, Munireddy alleged that ever since their marriage, the accused had not been taking care of his wife and had allegedly administered drugs on the pretext of treating her. He accused his son-in-law of neglecting her after they turned down his demand for money to construct a private hospital for him. His in-laws cited that they could not afford such a big amount, and later helped him to set up a clinic at Munnekolalla, where the couple were planning to start private practice, the police said.

On April 24, the accused allegedly administered the drugs multiple times to treat her for gastric problem, despite the victim repeatedly requesting him to remove the canola, unable to bear the pain, police said.

The accused refused to get the postmortem done even after the victim’s family filed a complaint with the jurisdictional police. “Being a doctor, he did not even perform CPR at home when he noticed the victim unconscious and not responding to the treatment,” Mr. Reddy alleged.

The family alleged that when they conducted a background check, they found that the accused’s family not only has criminal cases pending against them, but the accused also had an affair.