Murder accused at mental care hospital

Visakhapatnam: Purushotham Naidu and Padmaja, the lecturer couple from Madanapalle town in Chittoor district accused of killing their two daughters over suspected occult practice, were admitted to the government hospital for mental care in Vizag on Thursday for observation, examination and treatment.
Escorted by the police and their faces covered, the couple reached the hospital in a government vehicle and was admitted to unit IV of the psychiatry department.They will be kept in observation in separate male and female wards for undertrials.
Doctors said both of them were calm. “The wife did not speak at all or respond to any queries, while the husband was composed and apparently normal. It is the first day and relevant tests would be taken up subsequently. They will most likely be under a prolonged period of observation and treatment,” said a doctor at the hospital, adding that abreaction procedure might be used on the couple to get to the truth of the matter.
Abreaction is a psychoanalytical process for reliving an experience to purge it of its emotional excesses. It can also be a method of making someone conscious of repressed traumatic events.
“A short anaesthesia-kind agent is administered with the consent of patients to make them unconscious. When they are in the sub-conscious state, questions would be asked to know the truth behind the murders. They will also be made to relive the experience. Almost 99 per cent patients speak the truth during abreaction process,” the doctor said.