Advocate mom held after 7-day manhunt in child’s murder case

Bengaluru: Following an intensive seven-day manhunt, Bengaluru police on Thursday morning arrested advocate P Priyanka, who is accused of murdering her six-year-old daughter in alleged collusion with her realtor boyfriend. She was traced to Sakaleshpur, about 220 km from Bengaluru. A local court remanded her to five days of police custody. Acting on specific intelligence, a special police team tracked Priyanka to a farmhouse in Sakaleshpur and detained her around 7.30 am on Thursday. She was formally arrested after being served a police notice. According to police, Priyanka initially stayed at a secluded commercial resort on the outskirts of Sakaleshpur soon after going absconding. She stayed there for two to three days before shifting to the farmhouse owned by a common friend, Chiru, a senior police officer privy to the investigation said. Priyanka had been absconding since June 4 after her estranged husband, Praveen, filed a criminal complaint against her and her live-in partner, Mohan M G, at Kadugodi police station. Mohan was arrested shortly after the case was registered. The case relates to the death of Vennela, the couple's younger daughter, who was brought dead to a private hospital in Kadugodi on March 24. Priyanka initially told authorities that she had fed the child biryani and ice cream before putting her to sleep inside her MUV with the windows rolled up, suggesting that the child may have suffocated to death. However, during interrogation, Mohan allegedly confessed to hitting the child in the stomach with his elbow when she spilled ice cream inside the vehicle, and then clamped her mouth shut to muffle her cries. Investigators said Priyanka attempted to evade arrest through a complete digital blackout. She switched off her mobile phone and avoided using credit or debit cards to prevent investigators from tracking her digital footprint. But police maintained close surveillance on several suspected hideouts based on leads and clues got from Mohan during questioning.