The biryani killer: Woman laces dish with sedatives before suffocating husband

Biryani for dinner is known to leave one with a smile, but for one man in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, it turned out to be a last meal.

In the Chiluvur village, an onion trader got home exhausted after a long day selling his wares. His wife – whom he had been married to since 2007 – had prepared a fragrant biryani – the meat and rice dish was flavoured just so… with about 20 sleeping pills.

The woman, who was reportedly having an affair with a male colleague, saw her husband as an obstacle in their love story, reported Times of India. Desperate to be with one another, the mom-of-two colluded with the boyfriend to poison the husband.

And so, on January 18, the feast was carefully prepped and fed to the unsuspecting spouse. Once he had passed out, at about 11.30pm, the boyfriend who was lying in wait, joined the woman – him, sitting on the seller’s chest while she smothered him with a pillow. Once they had confirmed that he had stopped breathing, the boyfriend left the house and the woman stayed watching the body all night long. In the morning, she raised the alarm, crying that he had died because of a heart attack.

When relatives noticed drops of dried blood around the victim’s ear and saw bruising on his body, they realized something was amiss. And when police took the body in for an autopsy, they discovered that he died by suffocation, leading to the arrests of the real culprits.

Further investigations are ongoing.