NELLORE: Two days after the investigation into the alleged abduction of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl was taken up, police found her body in Sarvepalli canal in the city on Wednesday. The cops learnt that it was actually the girl’s mother who threw her child into the canal and tried to make the crime look like a kidnap.
The accused, identified as Koolapati Anusha, was studying Master of Computer Application (MCA) at a private college in Nellore. A resident of Gurralamadugu Sangam in the city, she married Manikanta of Rapur village four years ago and had two children. Manikanta was an employee at a private hotel in Rapur.
During interrogation, she told police that she threw her daughter, Lakshmi Harika, into the canal in the backyard of her house as she was unable to make ends meet for her two children.
Elaborating on the case, Nellore city deputy superintendent of police (DSP) D Srinivasa Reddy said the 22-year-old woman had informed the police that someone kidnapped her daughter, who was sleeping in a swing, early on Monday.
Stating that she had fallen asleep, too, Anusha told police that she had kept the door of the house open for the breeze as there was no power. Following the complaint, police formed special teams to trace the girl. When they began checking CCTV camera footage, Anusha spilled the beans. Police learnt that Anusha had been staying with her mother in Gurralamadugu Sangam.
When the woman committed the crime, her mother was not at home. Anusha left the house with Harika on the pretext that she would sleep at a relative’s place. She then threw the child into the Sarvepalli canal.
“Anusha thought her children would be a hurdle not just in her plan to pursue higher studies, but also in her life,” the DSP said and added that she wanted to pursue a job in a city after completing her studies.
Police fished out Harika’s body from the canal on Wednesday. Nellore city police registered a case for murder and Anusha was sent to remand.
