A man from Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district, who lives in Kuwait, went to his native village early morning last Saturday and allegedly bludgeoned to death a relative who was sleeping, before flying back to Kuwait the same day.
On Thursday, the 38-year-old took to social media to announce in a video from Kuwait that he had killed his wife’s sister’s father-in-law for allegedly misbehaving with his 12-year-old daughter who was staying with them. Police, though, are probing if there’s more to the story.
Inspector P Mahesh told The Indian Express that the accused and his wife have been working as a driver and a cook in Kuwait for several years.
“They left their daughter, who is now 12, with her maternal aunt and her husband, whose father is nearly 60 years old and disabled. The girl is admitted to a residential school but often comes to her aunt’s house in the village. She stayed in the house recently for some days,” said the inspector.
According to the inspector, the girl’s mother has alleged that the victim was “touching her daughter inappropriately”.
“She claimed that her daughter told her over the phone about the incident. She flew down from Kuwait to lodge a police complaint. We called (the elderly man) and questioned him before letting him go because we found that he and the girl were never alone. His daughter-in-law claims the child always slept with her in a different room while the old man slept outside,’’ inspector Mahesh said.
In her statement to officials to the policedays before the murder, the girl’s mother also claimed she taught her daughter about good touch and bad touch and that she called to complain that the relative’s behaviour was inappropriate.
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The woman then flew back to Kuwait and complained to her husband.
Circle Inspector P Venkateshwarlu said the accused headed out from Kuwait last Friday.
“He made a quick dash to Chennai airport, from where he came to the village in the early hours of Saturday and hit the victim, who was sleeping outside, on the head with an iron rod, killing him instantly. He then fled to Chennai and caught a flight back to Kuwait,” Venkateshwarlu said.
He said the accused then started monitoring the police investigation through media reports. “After we learned about a dispute between the two sisters over custody of the child, we shifted our focus on her father. It was then that he released videos on social media, claiming that he killed the man as justice for his daughter because police did not take action,” the CI said.
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The officer alleged that the accused was trying to “claim the moral high ground and get sympathy”.
Police said their investigation revealed that there was bad blood between the girl’s mother and her aunt, who had been taking care of the 12-year-old for years.
“There was some dispute between the sisters over expenses borne by the couple raising the child… Further investigation is underway,” inspector Mahesh said.
In the video the accused uploaded on social media Thursday, he said his daughter knows what inappropriate behaviour is.
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“Police did nothing, and I got justice by killing him,” he said in the video. Police have registered a case of murder against the couple and are looking at how to bring them back to the country.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
