If you're a fan of Vijay Varma, we're sure you undoubtedly enjoyed his portrayal of a psychopath in the recently released web series Dahaad.?
The actor portrayed a serial killer with the worst motives, and many people were reminded of a real-life monster by his performance. For those who are unaware, Vijay Varma's persona has many similarities to the actual serial killer Mohan Kumar, also known as Cyanide Mohan, who killed 20 women in Karnataka between 2003 and 2009.
Dahaad is set in Rajasthan even though the actual killings took place in a state in South India.
Swarnakar and Mohan Kumar Vivekanand, better known as Cyanide Mohan in the media, bear an uncannily striking similarity. Mohan used to provide cyanide-coated pills to his victims, who were mainly unmarried women from disadvantaged backgrounds, which is why the character has such a label. Mohan used to deftly convince them to take the cyanide-laced birth control tablets to prevent pregnancy after spending the night with them in a hotel room.?
Similar to Anand, Mohan persuaded these women to take the pills in a public lavatory because they would feel the need to urinate or vomit after doing so. Unfortunately, the women never questioned Mohan's motives. The location was important since a victim's dead corpse was discovered in a public lavatory both in the television show and in real life.
However, Mohan and Anand Swarnakar shared more similarities than just the murder weapon they both used. The sole distinction between Anand and Mohan is that Anand used to teach Hindi in a girls' college and Mohan taught physical education in a basic school. The antagonist's location has also been altered by Dahaad's? makers.
According to the claims, Mohan used to impersonate different people to fool his victims into thinking he belonged to the same caste, religion, and name. Mohan used to approach women at bus stops or in public areas and attempt to strike up a conversation with them, much like the series. He wouldn't hesitate to make friends with them right away if he received a favourable response.
The fact that Mohan and Anand used to target women in their late 20s who were having trouble finding suitable husbands because their parents had neglected to pay a dowry for their marriage was another significant connection between their situations. We saw that Anand pretended to be just interested in spending a lifetime with his victims, making the women think that he wasn't like every other man who was attempting to marry them for the dowry. Dowry played a significant role in most of these cases.
He would cleverly persuade them, though, that they required the money or jewellery in order to start a new life. The bodies of his victims were left behind after Anand stole those jewels and vanished. On the other side, the parents of these victims were ashamed that their daughter had fled the house, therefore in order to spare themselves further disgrace, they decided never to file a missing person's report, which aided their murderer.
In October 2009, police detained Mohan Kumar in a village outside of Mangaluru. After being found guilty and receiving life sentences in 15 similar instances and the death penalty in four murder trials, he is currently incarcerated at the Hindalga Central Prison in Belagavi. The latest of the twenty murder charges filed against him was the raping and killing of a 25-year-old Kasaragod lady in 2020, for which he was found guilty.
(With inputs from IANS)
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