In a tragic incident, a 15-year-old girl studying in class 10 was brutally murdered late on Thursday, May 9. The accused, identified as Prakash (32), allegedly severed her head and fled with it. The girl had recently passed in the SSLC exam and was to be engaged to Prakash.
The minor girl's engagement with Prakash, who was twice her age, was stopped by officials from the Women and Child Development department on May 9 after locals alerted them. The officials also persuaded her parents not to proceed with the marriage. After the engagement was thwarted, Prakash forcibly entered the girl’s house at night and abducted her, injuring her mother. He then took her to a location near a forest where he allegedly killed her and went absconding with her severed head.
Kodagu police have initiated a search operation to arrest the accused. Kodagu SP K Ramarajan said that the victim, who was the sole class 10 student in the school, had recently passed her SSLC exam and that the motive behind the murder will be determined after speaking to the victim's mother.
Of late, there have been many cases in Karnataka where men have attacked women with whom they were in intimate relationships. The recent murder of Neha Hiremath in Hubballi was one such case that had quickly snowballed into a major political controversy. Neha was murdered by her former classmate, Fayaz, within her college premises. She died while being taken to the hospital. Fayaz was arrested within hours of the murder.
A few days prior to Neha’s murder, on April 14, police arrested Pradeep of Bengaluru, who killed Ruksana, a woman who worked in Mysuru. They even had a baby. He killed her and burned her body near Tumakuru. The baby was found abandoned in Bengaluru and handed over to the police.