Lab technician arrested for poisoning wife to death with cyanide in Bengaluru

The accused is a lab technician and owns diagnostic centres in Bengaluru.

In a shocking incident, a lab technician was arrested by cops after allegedly poisoning his wife to death using cyanide in Chikamagaluru district, according to reports.

During interrogation, the accused confessed to having killed his wife by poisoning her food with cyanide. (HT Atrchives)

The accused has been identified as 37-year-old Darshan, who owns a number of diagnostic centres in the Karnataka capital. He had been married to 30-year-old Shweta for the last seven years. The couple also has a four-year-old son. They lived in Bengaluru, but had travelled to their native, Chikkamagaluru three days back.

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Initial investigations revealed that the man mixed cyanide in his wife's food after she discovered about his extra-marital affair. The couple used to have frequent fights after the woman came to know about his affair. Officials also came by an audio clip in which Shweta was heard requesting the other woman not to meet her husband. Upon interrogation, Darshan reportedly confessed to cops that he had poisoned her.

Shweta's family had filed a complaint with police, voicing their suspicions of foul play in the victim's death. Darshan's brother had told them that she died after suffering a heart attack, however, they saw that her body ad some minor injuries and doubted hat the couple had had a fight. Officials conducted a post mortem, that revealed that her intestine had traces of poison in it.

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“The audio clip and autopsy report raised further suspicions on Darshan and during sustained questioning, he confessed to the investigators about killing his wife by mixing cyanide in her food,” an officer told news agency PTI.

"A case of murder was registered and Darshan was arrested on Tuesday evening. As per his confession, he mixed cyanide in her food but we are still awaiting for report from forensic experts to ascertain the exact chemical used by him to kill her," he added.

(With inputs from PTI)