Woman cuts daughter's throat over eviction row in Karnataka, child out of danger

The Chikkamagaluru Police on Wednesday arrested a 30-year-old woman for slitting her five-year-old daughter’s throat in a blackmail bid. According to the police, the woman, Anu, held the knife to her daughter’s throat after she thought that she was being evicted from her home.

The NR Pura Police say that five months ago, Anu and her husband Jobi (35) had rented a building in Muttikoppa from Safeer, a gram panchayat leader, in order to run a business. A couple of months later, Safeer received an offer from a private petroleum company to set up a petrol pump.

“I am constructing a house and I needed the money so I went to Anu and Jobi and asked them if they can vacate the building. They informed me that they would not leave until the contract runs its course,” Safeer told TNM. Following this, two months ago, Anu and Jobi obtained an injunction order against Safeer. The court order stated that Safeer could not evict Anu and Jobi from the building until September this year.

Safeer said he accepted the offer and did not interfere. However, on Wednesday, things escalated when he hired an earth mover to clear the debris which was near the building.

“Next to the building, a few meters away, there is a compound wall and on Wednesday night, I was informed that there was debris near the compound wall. So I hired an earth mover to clear it up,” Safeer added.

Upon seeing the earth mover, Anu and Jobi allegedly rushed to the spot and demanded that the clearance work be stopped immediately.

“I tried to explain to them that the injunction order applied only to the building. Besides, since the property is mine, I was not doing anything illegal in clearing debris from my site. Things just escalated so quickly and Anu began threatening me saying she would kill her children and herself if I did not go away. Jobi then went to the police station to file a complaint against me,” Safeer said.

Safeer called the NR Pura police, who arrived at the spot a few minutes later. By then, a huge crowd of over 100 people had gathered at the spot as Anu was holding a knife to her 5-year-old daughter Maria’s throat.

“She just grabbed her daughter, who was hiding under the bed and held a knife to her. She tried to grab her 7-year-old son as well but we managed to get him to safety before she got to him,” the NR Pura police told TNM.

The police allegedly tried to pacify Anu. However, she slit her daughter’s throat in front of them. Two police constables rushed to rescue the child and Anu stabbed one of them on his palm. The entire incident was caught on camera and the video went viral on Thursday.  

“We managed to rescue the girl. There was a deep gash starting from her left ear to the side of her throat and she was bleeding profusely,” the police added.

Maria was rushed to the government hospital, where she is undergoing treatment and is currently out of danger. The NR Pura police have registered a case of attempted murder, assault and attempted suicide against Anu. “We produced her before the magistrate and she has been sent to judicial custody,” the police said.