In a shocking incident, a couple allegedly bludgeoned their two daughters to death with dumbbells on late Sunday night, at their residence in Shiva Nagar located on the outskirts of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh.
The victims were identified as Alekhya (27), a student of Indian Institute of Forest Management and Sai Divya (22), a BBA graduate pursuing a career in music.
The parents – Padmaja and her husband Purushottam Naidu – reportedly claimed that they had received a divine message to offer their daughters as sacrifice and believed that they would rise from dead.
Madanapalle DSP Ravi Manohara Chari was quoted saying in a report by Times of India that the family members had been behaving strangely ever since the lockdown. It was reported that the locals had heard loud and strange noises form the house on the evening of January 24.
When police arrived at the spot, they found the bodies of the two girls. One of them was found in the puja room while the other was covered in a cloth and kept in another room. Apparently, the parents had asked the police to to keep the bodies in the house for a day claiming that their daughters would come back to life. The bodies were later sent for post-mortem.
The DSP said that the couple seemed to be highly superstitious as the police found the bodies wrapped in red sarees and several ritual items at the crime scene.
It was reported that the father Purushottam Naidu is an associate professor of Chemistry at the Government Degree College and the mother Padmaja is a gold medalist in MSc Mathematics working as a correspondent of Masterminds IIT Talent School in Chitoor. Both have now been taken into custody.