Manjunath objected to his daughter's relationship with a Dalit man, which led to her engagement to another man being called off.
Kavana and her father Manjunath, who killed her. (Supplied)
In yet another alleged incident of dishonour killing, a Karnataka man bludgeoned his 20-year-old daughter before ensuring her death by slitting the young woman’s throat with a butcher’s knife at Bidalur, some six km from Devanahalli in Bengaluru Rural, early on Thursday, 12 October.
The police probing the incident said the man, Manjunath, was enraged over his daughter Kavana’s “decisions” in life, which he felt brought disrepute to his family, besides spoiling the marital life of her younger sister Keerthana.
The gruesome incident happened between 3.30 am and 4 am at Manjunath’s house in Bidalur.
According to the Vishwanathapura police, the issue in Manjunath’s family started around six months ago when they got Kavana engaged to a man, Mukunda.
Manunath has three daughters: Kavya, Kavana, and the youngest of the three, Keerthana.
Manjunath, aged around 47, belongs to the Naik community and runs a chicken shop in the village, the police said.
Kavana had discontinued college after her first-year graduation course and started working for a tech company as an executive at that time, the cops added.
However, Kavana was unhappy with the engagement as she had been in a relationship with a person named Manoj for some time. Manoj belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, the police said.
When the family learnt about Kavana’s relationship with Manoj, they objected to it citing his caste.
Subsequently, her engagement with Mukunda was called off and he agreed to marry Keerthana.
Soon after their wedding was solemnised, differences started cropping up between the newly wedded couple.
The situation turned bad for Keerthana and she had to seek the help of an NGO, Sakhi, to escape her husband’s harassment.
Keerthana then returned to her parental home, a senior police officer told South First.
On Wednesday night, Manjunath and Kavana quarrelled over her alleged role in ruining Keerthana’s marital life.
Following the argument, Manjunath decided to eliminate Kavana as she had talked back at him rudely and demeaningly, the police said.
At around 4 am, Manjunath started hitting a sleeping Kavana’s head with a Muddel Kol, a stick used to prepare finger millet flour to make ragi balls. He then took out his butcher’s knife and slit her neck to ensure that would die, the officer said.
Additional Superintendent of Police (SP), Bengaluru Rural District, Purushottam told South First that Manjunath, after committing the murder, waited until his wife Muniramakka woke up around 5.30 am.
“When Muniramakka learnt that her daughter had been murdered, she fell unconscious. Manjunath then walked to the police station which was around six kilometres away and surrendered,” he added.
Manjunath told the police that he had killed his daughter around 3.30 am with a two-feet wooden log and the butcher’s knife.
“We have registered a case of murder and arrested Manjunath. The weapons used for committing the crime have been secured,” SP Purushottam added.
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