The shocked family members of Prabha Arun Kumar, an IT professional murdered in Sydney, were asked to rush to her uncle’s Chandra Layout residence here as the family tried not to break the news to her daughter, Meghana, 9.
The Class V student was in their house at Basaveswara Nagar with her paternal grandparents. Prabha’s brother-in-law G. Prashanth Kumar told The Hindu that her husband, G. Arun Kumar, who was talking to her on the phone when she was attacked, was informed of the death only after he landed in Australia.
Prabha, 41, who went to Sydney in 2012 for an off-site project with the tech firm Mindtree, was expected to return for a family reunion in April. The family members said Mr. Arun Kumar was planning to go to Australia to bring her back.
“She last called me three days ago, when she said it was taxing for her to stay away from family. She complained that work pressure was severe, and she planned to return home for good in April,” her aunt Bharathi Jayachandra told The Hindu .
Prabha, a B.E. in Computer Science, had been working with Mindtree since 2005 and was a senior technical analyst. Her parents live in her hometown, Hamatur, in Dakshina Kannada district. Her father, Mahabala Shetty, is a farmer, and Prabha was the second of five siblings. Prabha’s elder brother, Shankar Shetty, who lives in Perth, claimed the body on Saturday night.
Mindtree officials said they were cooperating with the authorities in Sydney, and the priority was to bring the body back to the city. The company had been in touch with the family and was working out the modalities of an autopsy before shifting the body to Bengaluru, probably by Wednesday.
The family members said they had got in touch with the External Affairs Ministry and were waiting for its response.
“She was walking while talking to Arun on the phone when she said that a suspicious-looking man was following her,” her brother-in-law, Thrijesh Jayachandra, said. “The next moment, he heard her scream for help and then plead with the man not to harm [her] and take all her belongings if he wanted. Seconds later, he heard her scream and say she was stabbed.”
