Delhi man poisons wife, her family with thallium
Police said Arora planned the poisonings after his wife aborted her pregnancy last year, and to exact revenge for “being humiliated”, because his construction business was not doing well.
A day after the police arrested a resident of south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-1 for allegedly poisoning his wife and her family using thallium, a toxic chemical, a member of the woman’s family said they are exploring legal options to secure custody of the couple’s two children.
The police had, on Wednesday, arrested Varun Arora, for lacing his in-laws’ dinner with thallium on January 31, killing his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and leaving his wife comatose. The man’s father-in-law and the domestic help recovered after treatment.
Police said Arora planned the poisonings after his wife aborted her pregnancy last year, and to exact revenge for “being humiliated”, because his construction business was not doing well.
Arora has been booked for murder, attempt to murder along with charges under other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Deputy commissioner of police (west) Urvija Goel said the police received information from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on March 22 that a woman, Anita Devi Sharma, has died of thallium poisoning, after being treated for over a month.
“We made efforts to trace the source of thallium administered to the woman and found that the woman’s older daughter Divya, married to Varun Arora, is also admitted in the ICU of the same hospital with thallium poisoning. She is on ventilator support,” the DCP said.
Goel said investigations revealed that Divya’s younger sister Priyanka also died of thallium poisoning while undergoing treatment at BL Kapoor Hospital on February 15. “Anita’s husband Devender Mohan Sharma also showed symptoms of thallium poisoning. The maid working in the couple’s house had also been treated at RML Hospital for similar symptoms,” she said.
One of Divya’s cousins, who asked not to be named, said she has been on ventilator support for 22 days and her condition is deteriorating. “We have already lost two family members. Divya’s condition is also critical. All we want right now is the custody of her children. They are with Varun’s mother, and if thallium has been found in his house, the kids are also not safe,” the woman said.
Arora had visited the Sharma family in Inder Puri in January and cooked for them. He served the food to the entire family except his twins.
“Arora was detained for questioning on Wednesday, and when confronted, admitted to have procured thallium and administered it to his mother-in-law Anita, wife Divya, father-in-law Devender Mohan and his sister-in-law Priyanka. He claimed he poisoned them to take revenge because they had allegedly been humiliating him repeatedly,” the officer said.
Arora told the police that his wife had conceived after his father’s death last year. “He believed that his father was being reincarnated as his son. However, Divya developed complications and aborted the child on the advice of her parents and sister, against Arora’s wishes,” DCP Goel said.
“He also said that his in-laws used to taunt him because his construction business was not doing good,” she said.
She said the thallium was recovered from his Greater Kailash house. “We have also recovered his mobile phone that he had used to procure the thallium,” Goel said.
Police are tracing the source from where Arora had procured the thallium.
During interrogations, Arora is said to have revealed that he got the idea to use thallium from the internet. They also added that contrary to media reports, they had found no evidence to suggest he had been influenced by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose agencies reportedly use thallium to poison rivals.
“So far we have not found any evidence of him being inspired by Saddam Hussain,” Goel said.
Recalling that Arora started ill-treating Divya after she got her first child aborted last year, the cousin said if Divya had not undergone an abortion, she would have risked her own life. The cousin also added that the two families also had a tiff because Arora’s construction business was not doing well and Divya’s family had been supporting him for a long time.