‘My daughters’ killer should be punished’
Tags:
“I lost both my daughters to that heartless man, now I don’t want to lose my grandchildren,” said a sobbing Manjula Shankar who, two days ago, lost her younger daughter Asha, after her son-in-law Venugopal set Asha as well as their 18-month-old daughter ablaze. Manjula Shankar now wants to take custody of her elder daughter Ashwini’s children, Praveen (4) and Nikitha (6), who are presently living with their father Venugopal’s relatives. “I want to take away my grandchildren from them as I feel they must be harassing them. After Ashwini died in 2008, Venugopal never allowed me to see them. Since I was all alone and had nobody to fight for me, I did not have an option but to keep quiet,” said Manjula.
Once she gets custody of her grandchildren she wants them to live in a hostel as she feels they will not grow up in a conducive atmosphere where every day, questions about their parents will keep taunting them. Had Asha’s mother, Manjula Shankar, not relented to Venugopal’s threats, Asha and her one-and-half-year-old child could perhaps have been saved. Asha’s mother revealed that Venugopal had threatened to kill their elder daughter Ashwini’s children Nikitha and Praveen if she did not give Asha in marriage to him. “After he was released on bail, when the police took him in custody for my elder daughter Ashwini’s death, Venugopal would get the kids to my house every day.
He would carry a bottle of poison with him and threaten to give it to the kids. He used to tell me that the kids need a mother and since Asha is their own aunt, she will be able to look after them well,” said Manjula. She also said, that Venugopal had promised to live with Asha separately and not with his parents so that she would not be harassed by his parents like how her elder sister.
Manjula also said that her husband Shankarappa had deserted her in 2003 and got married to another woman. Citing this example, Venugopal would keep harassing Ashwini and later Asha that since their father married two women, he too had every right to marry as many women as he wanted. “I want him to be punished so severely that no other man should harass their wife and no other woman should suffer the fate of my daughters”, she added.
The K.R. Puram police, who registered a case under Section 302 of IPC, are on the lookout for Venugopal’s parents and younger brother Prabhakar, who are absconding.
Post new comment