Chittoor: On the day when the country is celebrating ‘girl-child’ by observing National Girl Child Day, superstitious parents in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district on Sunday killed their two grown-up daughters in a brutal manner, the police said. The murdered were identified as Alekhya (27) and Sai Divya (22).
The incident happened at Shivanagar Colony of Ankishettipalle village of Madanapalle block.
Ironically, the entire family is well-educated: father Malluru Purushottam Naidu is a vice-principal of the Madanapalle government women’s degree college, while his wife Padmaja, a gold medallist in mathematics, runs a popular private college in the town.
Alekhya qualified the Indian Forest Service examination and was posted as a forest officer at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh last year, but she returned to her hometown on leave during the COVID-19 lockdown and was said to be preparing for the Civil Services examination. Sai Divya too completed her post-graduation in business administration (MBA) and was pursuing a music course at A R Rahman Music Academy in Chennai.
The Madanapalle police took the parents into custody and are questioning them about their motive behind the gruesome murders.
Madanapalle deputy superintendent of police R Manohara Chary told reporters that the family moved into the newly-constructed house at Shivanagar. “Enquiries with the locals revealed that the family members were highly spiritual and were regularly performing pujas at their home during the COVID-19 period,” he said.
He said for the last three days, too, the family members were performing some pujas at home. “On Sunday night, after the completion of puja, the parents first killed their elder daughter in the puja room itself, by stuffing her mouth with a small copper tumbler and later smashing her head with a dumbbell. Later, they took the younger daughter to her room on the first floor of the house and stabbed her to death with a spear repeatedly,” the police official said.
Later, Naidu himself called one of his lecturers in the college and informed him about the gruesome murders. The lecturer immediately informed the police. Apart from the DSP, inspector of police Srinivasulu and sub-inspectors Dilip Kumar and Rama Devi rushed to the house to inspect the scene of the offence.
The DSP said while the mother had committed the killings, the father assisted her. “They appeared to be in a state of trance and were suffering from some psychological issues. They told us that their daughters would come alive after some time,” Chary said, adding that both the parents were well-educated but seemed to be addicted to witchcraft.