Doctor Accused Of Kidnapping, Starving Pregnant Mistress To Kill Unborn Baby

A Harvard-educated doctor was accused of hatching and implementing a plan to kill the child of his pregnant mistress because the baby was the result of her having an affair with another man.

Vignendra Ariyarajah was indicted in February on criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, assault and other charges and will appear before the court on Tuesday. He was accused of hiring two people to kidnap and torture Paul Marie Raymond, his mistress, in her Ditmas Park home in Brooklyn, New York City, in 2016, the New York Post reported.

While Ariyarajah was enjoying a skiing vacation with his wife in Montana, the pair hired by him kept Raymond locked up in the house and starved her, occasionally feeding her water or juice through a syringe. One of them also administered her fentanyl and phencyclidine (PCP), which was supposed to kill the unborn child. When she tried to flee the apartment on Dec. 23, 2016, the duo hunted her down and brought her back.

As a result of the drugs, the mistress went into labor at seven-and-a-half months and stayed in labor for four days. One of the kidnappers realized that Raymond was in bad shape on Christmas Eve and called the emergency services. Ariyarajah, who was in constant contact with the kidnappers, told them to cancel the alert.

The paramedics showed up at the place regardless and found “Raymond had already given birth and a newborn baby boy was lying on the bed with the umbilical cord still attached.” Although the child was born alive, it died after a few hours due to infection from the prolonged labor and a lack of medical intervention. An autopsy also revealed traces of fentanyl and PCP in the baby.

Raymond, on the other hand, was discovered with chemical burns to her face and ligature marks on her arms and leg. Her fingernails were torn off. Upon interrogation, one of the kidnappers turned on Ariyarajah, leading to his arrest.

The police learned that the affair between Ariyarajah and Raymond began when the latter visited him at MedCare Consultant Multi-Specialty Clinic, which had multiple offices across the city. Apparently, the accused was very controlling and was reportedly jealous of her having a romantic relationship with another man. He had also pressured her to leave the other man but Raymond got pregnant with his child instead. Ariyarajah had hatched the plan to take revenge on his mistress, investigators said.

However, the doctor’s lawyer, Matt Myers, insisted that his client was innocent and never had a romantic relationship with Raymond. “The case was taken to the grand jury in a slightly rushed fashion,” Myers said. “The doctor is an outstanding physician.”

Following his indictment, the doctor was released on $750,000 bond.