Kavitha allegedly injected pesticide into a bottle of whisky and then gave it to her husband. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH via The Straits Times/Asia News Network
In general, sharing is good. Sometimes, it can be fatal.
A man and his friend died on Tuesday in the southern Indian city of Chennai after sharing a drink laced with poison by the man’s wife.
The wife, identified in a report by The Times of India as Kavitha, had intended to kill her husband, Mr K. Sukumar, 27, police said.
She purportedly schemed to put pesticide into a bottle of liquor that she then handed to her husband, telling him it was a gift from one of his friends.
But – proving the saying that “even the best-laid schemes go astray” – her husband’s friend, Mr Harilal, 43, got his share of the tainted bottle and, although he had nothing to do with the problems between the couple, also ended up dead.
Kavitha and Mr Sukumar had not been on good terms since Mr Sukumar accused Kavitha of having an extramarital affair.
They had already decided to separate. But their kin intervened, forcing them to give their marriage another try.
However, “they had more fights, and that’s when the woman appears to have decided to end it all”, said an investigator.
On Saturday, Kavitha went to Mr Sukumar’s brother Mani and asked him to buy two bottles of liquor.
She gave the brother one bottle and took the other one home. She allegedly injected pesticide into it and then gave it to her husband on Sunday.
On Monday, Mr Sukumar took the bottle to the chicken stall where he worked and, just before lunch, had a drink with his friend, Harilal.
In minutes, the two were on the ground, unconscious. They were taken to a hospital.
Before he died on Tuesday morning, Mr Sukumar managed to reveal that he had drunk from a bottle he got from his wife.
Police sent samples from the bottle for testing. A laboratory found traces of toxic substances from the pesticide that Kavitha was said to have put in it.
After that, Kavitha was charged with murder.
Police said they were still searching for an accomplice she supposedly had.
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