NELLORE: A pall of gloom descended on Perareddypalle, a village near Atmakur, after a four-year-old girl died while undergoing treatment in Chennai. The child was admitted to a Chennai hospital after her father forced her to swallow kumkum and turmeric as part of a ritual on Wednesday morning.
K Venugopal, the father, had been suffering losses in his business for the past few years. Recently, he approached a 'baba', who advised him to perform the rituals. Venugopal allegedly put some kumkum and turmeric in the mouth of his daughter Punarvika and forced her to gulp it. The girl cried aloud when he throttled the backside of her neck.
Neighbours rushed in and shifted Punvarvika to a private hospital. Alerted from the hospital, the police took Venugopal into custody. Doctors later advised the relatives to take the girl to Apollo Hospital in Nellore.
Atmakur police took Venugopal into their custody. "Venugopal and his wife had twins after trying for six years. The wife had come back from her mother's house only a day before the incident," K Venkata Ramana, a resident of village, said.