The man who tasted Cyanide

‘Cyanide’ is a deadly poison that can cause instant death if it touches the tongue. That is why the world did not know what potassium cyanide tasted like, and no one is alive who tried to find out. But there is only one person who was the first and last to know the taste of cyanide and tell the world about it. He is a Malayali named Kannan Prasad, a native of Ernakulam. That incident, which the scientific world still looks at with great amazement, took place in 2006. To be precise, June 17, 2006.

But it is only 15 years after Prasad’s death that this matter gained world attention. Through Benjamin Lebuter’s book ‘When We Cease to Understand the World’, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.  Described as a superb non-fiction novel, the book is a journey through the lives of some geniuses who revolutionized the scientific world. One of them was Prasad. The news was discussed all over the world.

Prasad alias Kannan is the eldest son of the couple Prabhakaran and Sarojam of Kakkanad Pazhanthottam Mannassery in Ernakulam district. A handsome man with a moustache, a polished shirt and pants, always a smile on his face, and a personality that even those who spoke to him once remember. After leaving the goldsmith shop in Tripunithura, Prasad started his own jewelry shop on Puthuppally Street in Palakkad in 2005. With the little money he had and borrowing from many people, including his father, he started the shop called 'Golden Jewelry Works' with an investment of about 25 lakhs. 

 In a short time, Prasad's circle of friends expanded, and so did his business. Meanwhile, the incident that ruined Prasad's life took the form of a friendship. Two friends, natives of Bikaner in Rajasthan, who introduced themselves as marble workers, deceived him by giving him a gold-plated brass necklace. The deal was finalized for four lakh rupees. On March 28, he paid the first installment of two lakh rupees at a hotel at Shoranur railway station. 

Prasad came to know about the fraud late. Months later, Prasad learned through the newspapers that the group including the accused had committed a similar fraud and was arrested. He went to Shoranur police station, identified the accused and filed a complaint. After the incident, Prasad, who was mentally broken, was helped by his relative, but he could not recover. 

Prasad, who had decided to end his life, left his relative's house in Vennakkara with cyanide on June 15. Since he was a goldsmith, he had a license to buy cyanide.  He stayed in room number 207 in a private hotel near the bus stand in Palakkad city. His parents and father last spoke to Prasad on the phone on June 16. His parents insisted that he return home as he felt his speech was unusual.

He ended the conversation by saying that he would come on June 18, his mother's birthday, and that he was fine. He had also made the hotel boy talk to his father to convince him that he had no problems. On the day of the incident, he spoke to his brother Pradeep at 6.45 am. Since his mobile was switched off, he connected the phone by calling the hotel reception. Pradeep also received a reply that he was still happy and had no problems. But Prasad did not come out of the wound later. The next day, when he did not come out of the wound even after midnight, Prasad was found to have committed suicide during an inspection conducted by the lodge staff.  The police also found a suicide note and in that suicide note, Prasad had written down the secret that the world had not known until then. 

The note was like this ➖

“Doctors, I have tasted potassium cyanide. At first it was a terrible smoke. Slowly, very slowly, my tongue would burn, it was very hard, it was a terrible burning sensation”.

“My mistake was, I put the cyanide in alcohol and tried to dissolve it with a pen. But it did not dissolve. I wrote all the details with the same pen. I tried to remember something. The pen hit my tongue, and then it was a terrible burning sensation until I finished writing it…” This was what Prasad wrote as the reason for recording the taste of cyanide. After leaving a line on the same page, he also wrote, “They are the only ones responsible for my death, the Hindi people from Bikaner…”

Dr. P.B. Gujral conducted the post-mortem examination of Prasad at the Palakkad District Hospital.  Since the poison entered the body from the tip of the pen without drinking the cyanide-laced alcohol, only one or two milligrams of cyanide entered the body. That was enough to taste it. That's why it was possible to write it...