The man who planned to kill more than 1500 people with poison pills, got his idea from a massive rat infestation near his house in Pune. The powder Fayyaz Premji used in the pills – Zinc Phosphide – is used to make rat poison pellets.
Police sources said Premji had conducted extensive research on Google and AI regarding the effects of various dosages of zinc phosphide on the human body and had easy access to the poison.
Premji was caught distributing poisonous capsules claiming they were painkillers at a Muharram procession in Mumbai’s Byculla area on Friday. His behaviour had raised suspicion of several women volunteers. Still several people who had already consumed the capsules, fell ill.
Premji, police said after his arrest, is a resident of Viman Nagar, Pune. For the last few years, he has been living at the Row House No. 25 in the Konark Nagar Township, Viman Nagar. His father owns a paint factory where he used to work.
The man, who is 39 years old and has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree, also visited Iran and Iraq and worked for a month or two last year. His mother and sister have been living in Iran.
Sources said the police found during preliminary investigations that between 2019 and 2025, he made 19 such trips. He even visited Iran three times within a 19-day span.
Investigators are now auditing his international travel records and financial logs to see if there are any international links, though no foreign state conspiracy has been formally proven.
As to why he wanted to kill people, his neighbours in Pune said he had lost his mental balance after his wife left him. The police said he had ordered 30,000 capsules and 50 kilos of zinc phosphide.
At the time of the arrest, he had nearly 15,000 pills on him. He even managed to get others to help him with the distribution by claiming it was noble work, police sources said.
