HYDERABAD: Sanjay Kumar Yadav, the man who had drugged and killed nine persons in Warangal earlier this year, had searched for sleeping pills on Google on his phone just before committing the crime.
Forensic experts also extracted a screenshot of Ativan 2mg sleeping tablets from the man’s mobile phone. This evidence played a crucial in Sanjay being sentenced to death by a local court last month, a reading of the verdict shows.
The killer had in all killed 10 people. He had first killed his live-in partner in March. The rest of the nine killings were committed on May 20 to cover up the first murder and included six members of the live-in partner’s family. He had drugged his victims and thrown them in a well while they were still alive.
The forensic team also extracted from the phone photos of a woman victim’s private parts, clicked when she was unconscious.
This was apart from a video of Sanjay raping a 16-year-old girl found on his phone.
Though witnesses gave statements in the court that Sanjay was well acquainted with the victims, technical and forensic evidence played a key role in proving his guilt, a copy of the verdict that TOI accessed shows.
Discovery of the screenshots of Ativan sleeping pills was important as investigators had seized the medication from Sanjay when he was caught.
Also, a medical store in Warangal had confirmed that he had purchased four strips of the tablet on May 16 and 18 just before the killings. Analysis of the victims’ viscera samples confirmed that lorazepam drug in Benzodiazepine group of medication, which are used in Ativan, were found in their bodies.
The cell phone forensics also extracted the screenshot of “where is my train” app from Sanjay’s phone showing the location near Tadepalligudem in Andhra Pradesh, where he pushed his live-in partner to her death from the moving train.
The verdict says that the post-mortem examination report confirmed that the cause of death of the nine victims was asphyxia resulting from ante-mortem drowning associated with ante-mortem Benzodiazepine group of sedative drug poisoning, clearly indicating that the victims were alive when they were pushed into the well by the accused on May 20.