Karnataka: Man suspects minor girlfriend, forces her to consume poison

BENGALURU: Chikkaballapura police have arrested a 21-year-old man on charges of murdering his 17-year-old girlfriend. Investigation revealed the minor was forced to consume poison to prove that she did not have an affair with another man.
Chikkaballapura superintendent of police (SP) Abhinav Khare told TOI they arrested Venkatesh Kumar of Kamalapura village after he confessed to the crime.Earlier, the family of the minor had thought the girl had committed suicide and police had registered a case of unnatural death.
“They were in a relationship for two years. Kumar, who had recently started suspecting her, took her to Tondebavi in Chikkaballapura on January 6 under the pretext of discussing some personal matter,” police said.
There, he repeatedly interrogated the girl about her alleged affair with another man from her village. “...Kumar had seen the girl speaking to a man and assumed that she was in a relationship with him,” Khare said, adding that when the girl denied the charges, he forced her to consume poison.
“While she kept saying she wasn’t in any other relationship, Venkatesh pulled out two plastic bottles from his pocket and asked her to drink from one of them. He told her that both bottles had poison mixed with the drink and that he would kill himself if she refused to oblige,” said Khare.
However, he had mixed poison in only the bottle he gave her. “The girl consumed the drink laced with poison,” Khare said, adding: “Kumar was shocked too and couldn’t stop her in time.”
Kumar then brought the girl back to her home on his two-wheeler and she told her family that she had consumed poison. She was first rushed to a local hospital and then shifted to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. She died on January 8.
“Just to give an impression that he too had consumed poison, Kumar laced his lips with it. However, when we found the second bottle that had only the soft drink, he confessed to his crime,” Khare added.