Anusha stalking case: Rajesh gets life for killing victim's parents

Matta Rajesh Kumar will have to spend the rest of his life in prison after his sentencing by a local Court on Monday for murdering a couple and leaving their daughter injured over a year ago in Rajahmundry.

Rajesh had jumped over the boundary wall, barged into the bathroom of Narla Anusha and attacked her with her knife. Her parents, who tried to save her, were repeatedly attacked by the crazed youth who managed to snuff out their lives on that fateful evening of September 17, 2009.

The incident had led to an outcry from across the state, with the then chief minister K Rosaiah terming the incident as ‘barbaric’ and atrocious.

The reason behind Rajesh resorting to the attack was that he was in ‘love’ with Anusha, who was 16-year-old at that time. The teenager had spurned Rajesh’s advances and her parents had complained to the police about the harassment.

The police had then arrested Rajesh, but he was released on bail after a four-day stint in prison.

Rajesh did not take too kindly to the complaint and the continued resistance by Anusha to his amorous advances. He decided to ‘teach her a lesson’ by attacking her, and this ‘decision’ had made him resort to the attack.

The girl’s mother Sathyavati was the first to die on that day, when she tried to save her daughter by coming between Rajesh and Anusha.

She was stabbed repeatedly. Her screams alerted her auto-rickshaw driver husband, who rushed in, only to be stabbed again by the crazed youth.

Anusha by then alerted her neighbours who called an ambulance which took her parents to hospital.

By that time, bother her parents were dead, leaving Anusha and her two younger sisters orphans.

Anusha had sought the death penalty for Rajesh during her deposition, but on Monday said that "I will not get back my parents but at least justice has been done."

Meanwhile, Rajesh's defense lawyer said that he would file an appeal in the High Court over the sentence.