Meanwhile, the two daughters Alekhya (27) and Sai Divya (22) were students of the Indian Institute of Forest Management and Divya was a BBA graduate pursuing a career in music respectively, police said. The police had rushed to the Naidu residence after they received a call from neighbours at 8 pm, who complained of “torturous noises” and “loud screams and chants” coming from the house.
Inside the House, Police found dead bodies of the two daughters both bludgeoned to death with dumbbells, allegedly by the parents, as part of a ritual. As soon as police entered the home, they found Purushotham sitting in the living room on the couch. “He looked like he was in a state of trance,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravi Mohana Chary told The News Minute.
When the police team began their search in the house, they found the body of Alekhya, the eldest daughter, in the puja room on the ground floor. Alekhya had a deep injury on her forehead. Sai Divya was found in a pool of blood in her bedroom located upstairs, police said. Both had no clothes on them.
“Their heads were bludgeoned with a blunt weapon and they were cracked open,” DSP Ravi Chary said. The police team then found Padmaja, sitting on the bed. “She was looking at the wall. She did not seem to be aware of our presence,” he said. According to neighbours and colleagues, Purushotham’s family were deeply superstitious.
When they asked Padmaja about the murders, she allegedly lost her temper and allegedly shouted at the police for “disrupting the ritual”, which she believed would resurrect her dead daughters.
“She said that we brought demons into the house when we opened the doors. She asked us to leave and come back the next day and witness the miracle that was about to happen in the house, where her daughters would come back to life,” the DSP said.
Ravi Chary said that the family of four remained isolated ever since the pandemic set in. “The domestic workers too were not allowed inside the house,” he said.
Police said that the couple were not in a condition to be questioned. “The mother said that there was evil inside her younger daughter’s head. So, she broke it open. It is hard to describe what we saw. It was difficult for us to understand,” DSP Ravi Chary said.
Padmaja and Purushottam allegedly told the police officers at the crime scene that ‘they received signals from heaven’ and that they had a ‘house of miracles’.
“They told us that a miracle was about to happen, which we had spoiled by entering the house. They told us that the morning after the magic that would occur would be spoken about by the whole world,” he added.
The Madanapalli Police have registered a case of murder against Padmaja and Purushottam. The police said they were going to bring in a psychiatrist to assess the mental well-being of the couple. “They seemed to believe every word they said. We want to assess their mental health,” the DSP said.
Alekhya had completed a diploma in forest studies from Bhopal. Like many others her age, she was a regular user of social media websites like Instagram, where she shared pictures of herself, her friends and family. However, earlier this week, there was a shift in her posts. “Shiva is coming,” a post on January 21 said. This was followed by another post, “Work is done,” and another one, which said, “Islam is dead. Muslims are gone. Mohammed in Halahal #Shivaspeaks (sic).”
“We are spiritual and we believe in spiritual practices. Our elder daughter (Alekhya) too, is spiritual. We have done all required practices from last one week,” Padmaja is heard saying, before getting upset at the police for disrupting the ritual and saying, “We have done shuddhi. You people aren’t understanding. We’ve done such processes before. We get messages from god,” comcluded the parents in the video recorded by the Police.
