Bengaluru Surgeon Arrested For Killing Doctor Wife With Anaesthetic Drug
While the victim died in April, the doctor was arrested on October 13 after an FSL report revealed traces of Propofol in the victim's body.
Published : October 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM IST
Bengaluru: A Bengaluru-based surgeon was arrested for allegedly murdering his doctor wife six months ago by administering repeated doses of anaesthesia under the pretext of treating her, police said on Wednesday.
Marathahalli Police arrested Dr Mahendra Reddy, 31, a surgical resident at Victoria Hospital, on October 13 for allegedly overdosing his wife and dermatologist Krithika Reddy, 28, with anaesthetic drugs that caused fatal respiratory depression, leading to her death. The accused attempted to misrepresent her demise as a natural death, the police said.
The couple had married in May 2024, with sources saying the accused was upset with his wife and her parents for not disclosing her health issues to him before marriage.
On April 24 2025, the accused surgeon rushed Krithika to the nearby hospital in Ayyappa Layout, Munnekolalu, claiming she was unwell. The doctors examined her and declared her as being brought dead.
UDR Turns Into Murder Case
Commissioner of Police, Seemanth Kumar Singh, said that following the incident, an Unnatural Death Report (UDR) was filed, stating that the dermatologist 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...Police collected the evidence properly and sent it to the FSL," CP Singh said.
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 also 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.
Even though the accused doctor tried his best to pressure the victim's family to forgo both a police complaint and a post-mortem examination, the police went ahead with the autopsy.
The FSL experts in their recent report said that sedative (Propofol) substances were present in the organs of the deceased. Following this, the deceased's father, Muni Reddy, filed a complaint at the Marathahalli Police Station on October 13, expressing suspicion that his son-in-law (Dr Reddy) had murdered his daughter by administering sedatives.
Acting swiftly on the complaint, the Marathahalli Police apprehended the accused from Manipal in Udupi, 400 km away from Bengaluru, where he was attending a conference. CP Singh said that all the evidence points toward the husband's involvement in the murder.
"The evidence which has been collected till now points 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.
Authorities alleged that Dr Reddy misused his professional access to OT and ICU facilities at the hospital to procure and administer the drug.
The Complaint Filed By Father
As per the complaint filed by Muni Reddy, on the night of April 21, 2025, his son-in-law sedated his wife at his house in Gunjur, saying that she had a gastric problem.
"The next morning, he brought her to our house and left her there to rest. He returned the same evening and gave my daughter more medicine at night. Even then, my daughter was healthy after eating as usual. However, on 23/04/2025, in the afternoon, she was experiencing extreme pain due to the IV cannula that was inserted in her leg. When I asked him via WhatsApp if it could be removed, he said not to remove it. Instead, he assured that if she was given another dose, the pain would not come back," the father claimed in his complaint.
He said that the accused again administered the medicines through IV at around 9 pm on April 23.
"On 24/04/2025, at around 07:30 AM, we noticed that Krithika was not responding at all. When she was not speaking, my son-in-law and I immediately took her to the nearest hospital in our car. The doctors there examined her and confirmed that she was dead on arrival," the father said.
He claimed that his son-in-law, despite being a doctor, did not even perform CPR on her. "He and his family insisted that the post-mortem examination of the body should not be done, that we would take her body to our village. However, a UDR was registered based on the complaint filed by my eldest daughter Dr Nikitha, at the Marathahalli police station," the father said.
"Krithika trusted her husband completely as she believed in his love and in his profession. But the same medical knowledge that should have saved lives was used to destroy hers. Our family seeks the harshest punishment for this premeditated act and justice for our daughter, whose loss is not just personal but a loss to society," he added.
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