Bantwal: A 39-year-old Indian software consultant from Mangaluru was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant as she walked to her home in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday evening.
Prabha Shetty, the mother of a nine-year-old girl, was on the phone with her husband in Bengaluru when she was attacked, probably by someone who wanted to rob her. He heard her scream on the phone, and she told him she had been stabbed before the line went dead, a member of the couple’s family said.
Prabha was stabbed in Parramatta Park in the Sydney suburb of Westmead in an attack local police described as “horrific”, reports said. Prabha, a senior technical analyst with the Bengaluru-headquartered IT consultancy firm Mindtree, was barely 300 m from her home when she was attacked.
Prabha’s husband G Arun Kumar, a Bangalore-based software engineer, told authorities in Bengaluru that his wife had been working on a client project in Australia since 2012, and was due to return to India in April.
“Prabha disembarked from a train and called Arun on his mobile. She told Arun that she was being followed, and asked him to continue talking to her as she walked home. She told Arun that she had almost reached her home, after which she suddenly screamed, and told him that she had been stabbed. She continued to scream, and Arun could hear her tell her attacker to take her belongings. Then the call got disconnected,” Prabha’s brother-in-law, T Jayachandra, said.
The family immediately called Prabha’s room mate at the house in Westmead and discovered that Prabha was lying in a pool of blood near the house. The room mate informed authorities and Prabha was rushed to a private hospital but was declared dead, the brother in law said.
Stab wounds were found on the techie’s abdomen and her throat was slit, Jayachandra said quoting doctors. Prabha’s husband Arun left for Sydney on Sunday to complete the autopsy formalities and collect his wife’s body. He is being assisted by Prabha’s elder brother Dr Shankar Shetty, a doctor in Perth, Jayachandra said.
The woman techie Prabha Shetty, stabbed by unidentified man in Sydney hails from Amtoor near Kalladka in Bantwal. Daughter of farmer Mahabala Shetty and Sarojini from Bantwal were shocked to hear the sad news of her untimely demise.
Prabha who is second among six children married Arun 12 years ago. The couple has a daughter named Meghana who stays with Arun in Bengaluru.
Prabha started working for Bengaluru-headquartered IT consultancy firm Mindtree and three years back she got a promotion and moved to Australia.
She completed her early education in her native place Amtoor and high school studies in Mangaluru. Prabha Shetty held a computer science engineering degree from KVG College in Sullia.
Arun has moved to Sydney after he recieved the news of his wife. The eyewitnesses have agreed to co-operate with the cops and the accused who tried to rob her will be arrested at the earliest oppurtunity, sources said.
(Inputs from agencies)
