#RacismInAustralia: Bengaluru Techie Was On The Phone With Her Husband When She Was Attacked

A 41-year-old Bengaluru woman was stabbed to death in Sydney, Australia even as she was talking to her husband back home on the phone.

"Please don't hurt me. Take whatever you want. But please spare me," Prabha Arun Kumar, IT consultant with Mindtree, was heard telling her attacker over phone. Arun Kumar helplessly listened as his wife pleaded with her killer. Seconds earlier, Prabha told Arun that there was a 'huge person around her'. "Then he couldn't talk to her but could only hear her screams: 'please don't hurt me, take whatever you want, please don't hurt me'. She then told my uncle in Kannada that she has been stabbed and the call got disconnected," Prabha's nephew told the TOI.

The woman was walking through Parramatta Park, hardly 300 meters away from her Westmead home, when the killer accosted her. "Police are investigating after a woman was fatally injured in Westmead overnight. About 9.30pm (Saturday 7 March 2015), emergency services were called to a public walkway near Amos Street, following reports that a woman had been attacked. Police from Parramatta Local Area Command located a woman ¡ª believed to be aged in her early 40s - suffering a serious wound. She was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics before being taken to Westmead Hospital, where she later died," read an official statement from New South Wales police department.

The statement also added that State Crime Command's Homicide Squad is assisting Parramatta detectives. Prabha had gone to Sydney on project with Mindtree three years ago and was due to return to home on April this year. Around 9.30pm Sydney time (4pm IST), Prabha called her husband, as usual, said nephew Thrijesh Jayachandra.

READ ALSO: Now, Australia raises walls to restrict skilled immigration Prabha, a BE (Computer Science) graduate from Sullia, Dakshina Kannad a district, worked as a senior technical analyst, sources said. She married G Arun Kumar, who owns a software firm in the city, 11 years ago. The couple's nine-year-old daughter Meghana studies in class V in a Bengaluru school. The family resided at Basaveshwara Nagar, west Bengaluru.

Arun Kumar left for Sydney around 12.40am on Saturday night. "It is extremely unfortunate and shocking. Our prayers are with the family of the deceased. We are working with the officials of both the countries to help the family to bring the body back to India. We are providing all the necessary support to authorities investigating the case," Mindtree said in Bengaluru.

Originally published on Times Of India