Bengaluru surgeon kills wife with anaesthesia, shocking details emerge: ‘Used medical knowledge to destroy life’

A surgeon at a Bengaluru hospital was arrested for allegedly killing his wife, Dr Kruthika M Reddy, by administering her a lethal dose of Propofol (anaesthesia) under the guise of treatment. He "meticulously" planned his wife's murder and attempted to disguise it as a natural death.

Dr Mahendra Reddy (31) and Kruthika (28) had tied the knot on May 26, 2024, in Gunjur, Bengaluru, Kruthika's father said. Both of them worked in the Victoria Government Hospital in Bengaluru.

"Dr. Kruthika trusted her husband completely. She believed in his love and in his profession. But the same medical knowledge that should have saved lives was used to destroy hers," Muni Reddy, father of the victim, was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

'Meticulously' planned murder

Police said Mahendra allegedly used his professional expertise and intimate knowledge of his wife’s medical history to plan the act “with clinical precision."

As per PTI, authorities alleged that Mahendra Reddy misused his professional access to OT and ICU facilities at the hospital to procure and administer the drug.

Whitefield DCP M Parashuram was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying, “Mahendra had planned his wife’s murder meticulously. He knew her medical vulnerabilities and used his professional knowledge to exploit them.”

Mahendra ‘overdosed’ his wife: IV doses, no CPR

According to the police, the husband, Dr Mahendra Reddy, allegedly overdosed his wife, Kruthika M Reddy, with anaesthetic drugs that caused fatal respiratory depression, leading to the death of the victim, PTI reported.

Kruthika's father Muni Reddy alleged that on April 21, Mahendra administered intravenous (IV) medication to Kruthika at their residence, claiming it was for gastric discomfort.

The next day, he left her at her parents’ home, saying she needed rest, and later returned that night to give another IV dose, Seemant Kumar added.

On April 23, Kruthika complained of pain from the IV site. Mahendra advised her over WhatsApp not to remove it, saying he would administer another dose that night, the police officer said.

Around 9.30 pm the same day, he went to her room to administer the medicine. The next morning, April 24, Kruthika was found unresponsive.

She reportedly fell ill and was rushed to the nearby hospital in Ayyappa Layout, Munnekolalu. The doctors examined her and confirmed that she had died.

He then attempted to misrepresent the death as natural and reportedly pressured the victim's family to forgo both a police complaint and a post-mortem examination.

Kruthika 'died under mysterious circumstances'?

Commissioner of Police, Seemanth Kumar Singh, said that an Unnatural Death Report (UDR) was filed after the incident, stating that the doctor died under mysterious circumstances.

"In the Marathahalli Police Station police station limits in April 2025, there was a UDR reported of a lady who died under mysterious circumstances, but there was no complaint as such," CP Seemanth Kumar Singh said.

"The police have done a good job in this, as they have properly collected the evidence. The team has collected the evidence properly and sent it to the FSL," he added.

How did Bengaluru Police crack the case

The UDR team collected material evidence, including the cannula set, injection tube, and other medical items used in the act, and handed them over to the investigating officers for further action.

On the same day, the investigating officers collected viscera samples from the deceased's body to ascertain the exact cause of death and sent them to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for expert opinion.

Police told PTI that the FSL experts reported that sedative (Propofol) substances were present in the organs of the deceased.

Husband Mahendra arrested

Following this, Kruthika's father lodged a complaint at the Marathahalli Police Station on Monday, expressing suspicion that his son-in-law, Dr Mahendra Reddy, had murdered his daughter by administering sedatives.

Police registered the case based on the FIR filed by Muni Reddy, converting the earlier Unnatural Death Report into a murder investigation.

Acting swiftly on the complaint, the Marathahalli Police apprehended the accused from Manipal, Udupi, on October 14. CP Seemanth Kumar Singh said that all the evidence points toward the husband's involvement in the murder.

"The evidences which has been collected till now point to the hand of her husband because he was the person who had brought her to the hospital initially and had never complained about what happened and said that she was not in good health and she was undergoing treatment," he said.

Why did Mahendra kill Kruthika?

Kruthika's father Muni Reddy alleged in his complaint that after marriage, Mahendra began showing neglect towards Kruthika, complaining that she sought her father’s consent for even minor household decisions and made her bear personal expenses, a police officer told PTI.

It was also alleged that Mahendra pressured wife Kruthika's family to finance the construction of a large hospital, but instead, Muni Reddy said he set up a clinic named ‘Skin & Scalpel’ at Marathahalli for the couple’s medical practice.

Another theory floated as police, according to the Hindustan Times, later discovered that Mahendra had been upset upon learning that Kruthika suffered from long-standing gastric and metabolic disorders, information her family allegedly didn’t disclose before marriage.

Investigators believe this revelation triggered months of resentment, culminating in the carefully orchestrated poisoning.

(With inputs from agencies)