Bengaluru surgeon kills dermatologist wife with anesthesia overdose, arrested after 6 months

BENGALURU: A city-based surgeon murdered his wife by injecting her with an overdose of anaesthesia to make it look like an unnatural death six months ago. However, a forensic report, which was received by the police recently, revealed the murder and the accused doctor has since been arrested and remanded to seven days in police custody.

Dr Mahendra Reddy G had an arranged marriage with Dr Kruthika M Reddy and the wedding was solemnised on May 26, 2024. Kruthika was suffering from indigestion, gastric problems and low blood sugar which Mahendra came to know only after their marriage. Kruthika would suffer bouts of vomiting and other health issues. After 11 months of marriage, Mahendra plotted to kill Kruthika.

While Mahendra was working as a general surgeon at Victoria Hospital, Kruthika worked as a dermatologist in the same hospital. When Kruthika was at her parental home due to illness, Mahendra administered some medicines through intravenous fluids successively over two days in April this year. When she lost consciousness, she was shifted to a private hospital on April 23 where she was declared brought dead.

After the hospital issued a death memo, the Marathahalli police had visited the hospital, but since her family refused to file a complaint, the police had filed a case of unnatural death and sent visceral samples to a forensic lab after the autopsy.

The forensic report highlighted traces of anaesthesia and mentioned that it was the cause of death. Following this, the Marathahalli police converted the case of unnatural death to murder and arrested Mahendra from Manipal.

The couple was living at Munenakolalu in Marathahalli while Kruthika’s father Munireddy is a resident of Gunjur. After a grand wedding, Mahendra demanded money from his wife to open a hospital and accordingly, her parents helped him set up a clinic where both were working. Mahendra also allegedly used to behave in an objectionable manner with other women and this had led to frequent quarrels.

Kruthika’s father Munireddy said, “Theirs’s was an arranged marriage and Mahendra said she will be cured with IV injections, which we believed. On April 21, he gave her glucose and gave her an injection in the evening. The next day, he went to work after giving her an injection and said that it would be the last. When I questioned about her death, he said he didn’t know what to do. The forensic report has revealed about anaesthesia overdose”.

After, Kruthika’s death, her family had donated a house they had built her for her at a cost of Rs 4 crore to ISKCON.