I was poisoned, held hostage: Ex-Karnataka top cop's wife in messages before murder

Disturbing messages, reportedly sent by Pallavi, former Karnataka DGP Om Prakash's wife and the prime accused in his murder, showed she believed she was constantly under surveillance, long before she allegedly stabbed him.

In Short

• “I am a hostage,” ex-top cop’s wife claimed in WhatsApp messages
• Pallavi claimed to have been subjected to years of food poisoning
• She alleged long-standing abuse and attacks on her, her daughter

WhatsApp messages, purportedly sent by the wife of retired Karnataka DGP Om Prakash, also the prime accused in his murder, claimed she was living under constant surveillance and threats.

“I am a hostage. Always in surveillance by Omprakash’s agents wherever I go,” the wife, Pallavi, wrote in one of the messages.

The messages, accessed by India Today, were reportedly sent to a group which included journalists. They revealed that Pallavi felt trapped and persecuted months before she allegedly stabbed the former Director General of Police to death.

In several of the messages, she alleged long-standing abuse, poisoning attempts, and surveillance. “I have been asking him to live separately for years but to no avail. Wherever I go on my own, the same food and water poisoning starts,” she wrote.

She added that even food delivery services like Swiggy and Zomato were allegedly adulterated, and domestic help was bribed to carry out the poisoning. “Poisoning is just a term for you to read. It is very very painful,” she stated, demanding a proper investigation. “My daughter is suffering badly now. I can't sit quietly.”

She claimed the prolonged abuse had affected her health. “Years of poisoning would have harmed kidneys also. Please get those reports and file (them). I have been doing home detox with things like ghee and nimbu (lemon),” she wrote, further suggesting that cooks at their home be interrogated to reveal the truth.

In one of the messages, she also recounted a disturbing encounter: “Yesterday while walking on the road, one person who had left the van door open and was moving the van with open door released some powder from the van. I didn’t realise it until much later when my whole upper body started burning.”

She continued with more alarming allegations: “It seems too bizarre to be true but it is. His empire is huge. He is actually a PFI member.” She pleaded, “What should I do? My daughter is suffering. It started recently, when she started raising her voice.”

Pallavi, in the messages, feared for her and her daughter’s lives. “If anything happens to my daughter and me, however natural or accidental it might look, my husband will be responsible for this. I will have to suffer quietly. It is very very painful.”

In another message, she wrote, “The victim can be injected by very very painful injections. Without an iota of doubt. I still don’t know how this works out but it does. Probably piston effort. I am sure the NIA has no knowledge of this extremely sophisticated physical weapon.” She also mentioned a man named Mastaan, alleging he had been using a prickling weapon on her for a long time.

In another message, Pallavi also pleaded for help from national security officials. “At least bring it to the notice of Ajit Doval. From where is he getting these weapons and money? It is more dangerous than the Ranya Rao case,” she wrote, referring to a high-profile smuggling case involving a Kannada actor.

Pallavi added, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely more if it is additionally accompanied by money power. Money makes everything so easy.”

She asked that the authorities seize a revolver allegedly in Om Prakash’s possession and preserve her messages before “any hacking is done or it disappears.” In another message, she wrote, “Please save this message.”

Referring to her husband’s final months in service, Pallavi claimed, “During my husband’s last few months of DGP, a police officer would commit suicide almost every ten to fifteen days. Every case is declared as a mental instability case.”

She also requested the current DGP for temporary accommodation for herself. “If possible, let the DGP give me accommodation in Ashok Nagar Quarters temporarily. There things might be comparatively safer. I don’t know how much that will work out. But at the moment, that seems to be the best bet.”

“Our constables are very easily bribed. But I can’t think of anything else,” one of her messages read.

These WhatsApp messages are now part of the ongoing investigation into Om Prakash’s death. Authorities were analysing these communications as they attempted to piece together the chain of events and possible motive behind the murder.