MANGALURU: Prabha Arun Kumar, a city-based techie who was murdered in Sydney on Saturday night, was to return to her Bengaluru home in May, according to her relatives. She had been working in Bengaluru for 15 years and MindTree had sent her on an overseas assignment after being impressed with her work.
She hailed from a small village called Hoige Gadde in Kalladka, 24 km from Mangaluru. Her maiden name was Prabha Shetty and she was the daughter of Mahabala Shetty, an agriculturist. She was the second of six children.
Mahabala, who was inconsolable, said, “I should have asked her to come home earlier this year, I could have seen my child in flesh and blood.” Prabha was a bright student and she did computer science in KVG Engineering College. “She passed out in 1996 with good grades and worked in India for some time, but we lost contact with her,” Prof Jnanesh, principal, KVG Engineering College, told Express.
“She belonged to the second batch of computer science in our college and joined in 1992. My colleague Srikanta Murthy, a senior faculty of computer science, was her teacher. I remember him telling me that Prabha had been doing well for her company in Australia,” he said.
Jayalakshmi Shetty, a close family friend, said, “She was a hard working student. She used to go from Kalladka to Sullia every day at 5 am after helping her family in household chores. She came from an agricultural family, but with hard work and tenacity she passed with flying colours in her academic pursuits. Kalladka town was happy about her achievement.”
Prabha completed her basic education at the St Antony Primary School in Amtoor near Kalladka.
Following the news of her death, a pall of gloom descended on Hoige Gadde village. A few teachers and students of the school visited her house in the village.