Mumbai The Mumbai crime branch has sought medical record of the mother of the 45-year-old businessman from Santacruz who was allegedly poisoned to death by his wife and her lover. The mother of the victim is also suspected to be murdered, as she too displayed similar symptoms.
Unit 9 of the crime branch on Thursday arrested Kavita Shah, 45, wife of the businessman Kamalkant Shah, and her lover Hitesh Jain, 46, a Vile Parle resident who is a stationery and cutlery supplier.
The police said Kamlakant was a cloth manufacturer running three units – Mumbai, Thane and Bhiwandi. He was allegedly given thallium and arsenic through food.
“We suspect that Kavita started poisoning her husband from mid-June when she returned to her husband’s house in Santacruz after staying separately for a while. Victim’s family members suspect that Kamlakant’s mother Sarladevi might have also died due to slow poisoning. We will write to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, where the mother was treated, to get her medical record. As no postmortem was conducted on her body, we will seek an expert doctor’s opinion, to ascertain if Sarladevi too was administered poison,” said the police officer.
The police said Sarladevi felt pain in the stomach from July 29 and also suffered from loose motions and vomiting. She was admitted to a local hospital. Doctors, however, said she had a swelling in her stomach due to infection and was rushed to Kokilaben Hospital where she died on August 13 due to multiple organ failure.
Kamlakant, too, suffered stomach pain from August 24. Local doctors could not determine what was wrong with him and finally advised blood heavy metal test and found traces of arsenic and thallium in his body. Kamlakant died in the hospital on September 19.
The doctors clearly told Kamlakant’s family members that arsenic and thallium is found in the body only when a person is poisoned.
“Both, mother and son were physically fit and fine. How can they suddenly die like this,” said Arun Kumar Lalwani, Sarladevi’s son-in-law. The police said preliminary investigation revealed that Jain and Kavita were having an affair for the last seven years.
“There are similarities in the deaths of mother and son and therefore the mother’s death also needs investigation,” said a police officer. The officer added that after Kavita returned to her matrimonial home, she had kept their cook, Laxman, away from the kitchen and herself cooked for the family.
“She even started giving Ukala (a milk preparation) to her husband every day, which was earlier made by their cook,” said the police officer.
The police are in the process of recording statements of shopkeepers from whom the duo had obtained thallium and arsenic used to kill the 45-year-old.
“We have seized their phones and have found evidence suggesting that the accused had searched for poisoning methods and use of deadly chemicals to commit the murder,” said the police officer. The police have also found CCTV footage capturing Jain outside a chemical shop where they suspect he had come to procure the poisons.
“We are at a primary stage of investigation and are gathering evidence,” said Krishnakant Upadhyay, deputy commissioner of police, Mumbai Crime branch.