In an incident reminiscent of the ‘ritualistic’ suicides of 11 members of a family in Delhi’s Burari in 2018, a teacher couple in Andhra Pradesh allegedly killed their two daughters as part of a ritual, believing that the two would come alive after some time.

DSP Ravi Manohara Chari said while the mother had committed the killings, the father assisted her. “They appeared to be in a state of trance and were suffering from some psychological issues. They told us that their daughters would come alive after some time,” Chary said, the Times of India reported. 

The couple allegedly bludgeoned their two daughters —  Alekhya (27) and Sai Divya (22) — to death at their house in Shiva Nagar on the outskirts of Madanapalle  in Andhra Pradesh late Sunday night.

Both parents are well-educated — father Malluru Purushottam Naidu is a vice-principal of the Madanapalle government women’s degree college while his wife Padmaja is a gold medallist in mathematics and runs a private college.

Alekhya had qualified for the Indian Forest Service and was posted as a forest officer at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh last year. She was preparing for the Civil Services examination. Sai Divya had completed her post-graduation in business administration (MBA) and was pursuing a music course in Chennai. Both girls were home following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Enquiries with the locals revealed that the family members were highly spiritual and were regularly performing pujas at their home during the COVID-19 period,” Chary was quoted as saying by local media.

He added, “on Sunday night, after the completion of puja, the parents first killed their elder daughter in the puja room itself, by stuffing her mouth with a small copper tumbler and later smashing her head with a dumbbell. Later, they took the younger daughter to her room on the first floor of the house and stabbed her to death with a spear repeatedly,” reports website Siasat. 

Naidu later called a colleague, who informed the police.

In 2018, a family of 11 was found hanging at their home in Delhi’s Burari. The police investigations and a diary maintained by a member of the family revealed that they were confident that they would survive the ritualistic hanging ceremony that followed a seven-day puja.