Mumbai Crime: Cook poisons 65-year-old woman over weeks in Colaba

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The Colaba police have arrested a 33-year-old cook for poisoning his 65-year-old employer. The woman, who was clueless about what the accused was doing, used to feel drowsy and sluggish after every meal. It was her daughter, on a visit from the US, who observed the pattern and got suspicious. She took her mother to hospital for tests, which confirmed the presence of rat poison in her blood.

The two then approached the police and lodged a complaint against the accused, Riyajul Haq Mandal. The complainant Jigiya Khajotiya lives alone in Bakhtwar building, Colaba; her son and daughter live abroad. Since August, the senior citizen had not been keeping well. "It all started from August 6; after every meal she would be on the brink of unconsciousness. Mid-August, her daughter came to Mumbai and noticed the pattern. She took her mother to Tata Hospital," said a cop.

Her blood report, which came in the last week of August, established that there was rat poison in her system. "We arrested Mandal; he confessed to poisoning her," said another officer. Mandal has been booked under IPC section 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) and remanded to police custody.

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