Aussie cops in B'luru to probe Mindtree techie's murder

 Homicide detectives from the New South Wales police (Australia) are in Bengaluru as part of their investigation into the murder of Prabha Arun Kumar, 41, a senior technical analyst with Mindtree who was stabbed to death in Sydney on March 7, 2015.

The four-member team that arrived here on January 16 is being moderated by the Bengaluru police at the Cyber Crime Wing of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The detectives are considering the possibility of an Indian person’s involvement in Prabha's murder.

Close to 4,000 people have been questioned so far. They include habitual offenders, Prabha’s friends, colleagues, neighbours and others, but a specific clue leading to the culprit has not been established, said CID sources. 

Earlier, detectives considered that Prabha could have been murdered for gain. However, her purse, jewellery and other valuables were intact. They now suspect it could be a planned ‘cross-country’ murder. The miscreant who stabbed Prabha in Sydney is still at large.

The homicide detectives are now considering a possibility of an Indian person’s involvement in the ‘supari’ killing of Prabha. Sources said that the person was known to Prabha. The team will head to Prabha’s native Amtur in Dakshina Kannada district and has sought the help of Karnataka police for questioning some people including Prabha’s parents, relatives, siblings, husband and his family members.

On March 7, 2015, Prabha left her workplace in Sydney and boarded a local train. She alighted at the Parramatta train station and was walking through the Argyle Street in Parramatta Park when an unidentified man accosted her and slit her throat. She was 300 metres away from her house and, was speaking to her husband Arun Kumar in India over phone.

The Australian police had released the CCTV footage hoping to find the killer. The Sydney police had also searched for the person who was seen in the footage walking nearby through Parramatta Golf Course near Jubilee Lane on the night of Prabha’s murder. “The person in the footage is the one person we have not been able to identify so far, after months of exhaustive enquiry,” the Australian media had reported quoting acting inspector Ritchie Sim a few months after the murder.

Mindtree had sent Prabha to Australia on a three-year deputation. She left for Sydney in 2012 and was expected to return to Bengaluru in the first week of April 2015, as the project had concluded. She had married Arun Kumar in 2000 and was living in Basaveshwaranagar here.