Woman arrested for murder of six-year-old daughter

Days after the shocking murder of six-year-old Vennela came to light, the Kadugodi police on Thursday arrested the child’s mother, advocate P. Priyanka, from Sakleshpur in Hassan district.

Priyanka, who had been living separately from her husband Praveen, was allegedly in a live-in relationship with realtor G.M. Mohan at a house in Seegehalli.

Investigations have revealed that the duo allegedly murdered Vennela nearly three months ago and attempted to pass off the death as an accident.

Suspicions over the circumstances surrounding the child’s death prompted her father, Praveen, to file a complaint seeking a detailed investigation. Acting on the complaint, the police exhumed the body and sent it for a post-mortem examination.

Following preliminary investigations, the police arrested Mohan. However, Priyanka allegedly went into hiding before she could be taken into custody. After the post-mortem report confirmed that the child had died due to homicidal violence, a police team tracked Priyanka to Sakleshpur, where she was hiding, and arrested her on Thursday.

She was subsequently brought to Bengaluru and produced before a court. During the proceedings, the judge reportedly warned the accused to fully cooperate with the investigation, cautioning her against attempting to mislead investigators or create obstacles in the probe.

Meanwhile, the case has put the Kadugodi police under scrutiny, with questions being raised over the alleged delay in registering an FIR despite receiving a complaint from the child’s father and reportedly being aware of the suspicious nature of the death. Senior police officers are expected to examine the sequence of events leading up to the registration of the case.

The police said further investigation is under way to establish the exact motive behind the murder and the role played by each accused. The accused initially gave different explanations, claiming the girl had fallen ill after eating biryani or had been accidentally asphyxiated after being left sleeping in an air-conditioned car.

However, the child was allegedly assaulted and smothered to death after a dispute over a flavor of ice cream.

Vennela’s body was taken to Vydehi Hospital on the morning of March 25 and declared brought dead. The case was initially treated as unnatural death, but following an inconclusive autopsy, the father sought independent medical reviews which raised suspicions of homicide.