Andhra couple, who killed daughters to appease supernatural powers, sent to jail

The killings took place on Sunday and the police have been grilling the couple for the last two days to find out the actual reason for the murder.

A local court in Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district on Tuesday remanded a couple to 14-day judicial custody. The husband-wife duo is accused of killing their two daughters allegedly to appease supernatural forces.

The accused attacked the constable and hit him with a pair of handcuffs.

Malluru Purushottam Naidu, vice-principal of the local government women’s degree college, and his wife Padmaja, a gold medallist in mathematics who also runs an IIT-coaching institute in the town, were moved to Madanapalle sub-jail later in the evening.

The killings took place on Sunday and the police have been grilling the couple for the last two days to find out the actual reason for the murder of their daughters – Alekhya (27), a post-graduate in forest management and Sai Divya (23), an MBA pursuing music course at KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. The couple allegedly performed some strange pujas for several days at their residence.

In the afternoon, the police moved them to Madanapalle government hospital for Covid-19 testing before taking them to the police station and then to the court. However, Padmaja refused to cooperate with the police for conducting a medical examination.

“She went hysterical while going to the hospital. She claimed herself to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva and that she had poison in her throat, and so, there was no need for conducting any Covid-19 test on her,” Madanapalle inspector of police Srinivasulu said.

She went on saying that she had already driven away Covid-19 from her. “Shiva is back, work is done. I am Shiva,” she screamed.

The police inspector said as Padmaja refused to enter the hospital, the doctors came out and took her throat swab sample at the police van. Later, the police took the couple to the police station for formal registration of the case.

On Monday evening, the bodies of the two daughters were cremated at the local crematorium. While Padmaja did not turn up for the cremation, Naidu lit the pyre. “We unnecessarily killed our own daughters. We don’t deserve to live,” he lamented.