Serial killer who laced prasadam with cyanide gets life sentence
Vellanki Simhadri, also known as Shiva, has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering 10 people by giving them cyanide-laced prasadam or poisoned medicine in 2019.
His victims included his own grandmother, sister-in-law, landlady, and several women across Krishna and Godavari districts.
How he did it—and what happened next
Simhadri posed as a realtor selling fake "rice-pulling coins" and gemstones, convincing people to invest money and gold with promises of big returns.
He then poisoned them using potassium cyanide purchased from Shaik Aminullah Babu, who procured it using his brother Asad's electro-nickel plating unit.
The case was tricky at first since most deaths looked like heart attacks—until an autopsy revealed the truth.
After his arrest and confession in 2019, Simhadri was later sentenced to life imprisonment while his accomplice Aminullah received 10 years in jail.