Hyderabad, May 12 (Express News): A man strangled his pregnant wife to death at Shankarmatham in Kurnool late Tuesday night after coming to know she was carrying a female child for the third consecutive time.

The private clinic-cum-scanning centre, which performed the pre-natal test on the woman, was shut down by the district authorities after the murder came to light. According to police, Surekha (22) was married to 26-year-old Prakash six years ago. Hailing from Owk mandal in the district, they had shifted to the town where Prakash got employment with a local goldsmith.

Even after the couple had two children, four-year-old Kavya and an 18-month-old baby, Prakash did not adopt any family planning measures since he desired a male child, police and family members said.
She became pregnant again and two days ago, Prakash made her undergo a test at Pavan Clinic and Scanning Centre at Banaganapalli. “It was revealed that she was carrying a girl child again. Prakash started harassing his wife since then,” police said.

The couple had a quarrel over the issue on Tuesday and Prakash beat up his wife severely. “When Surekha raised an alarm, Prakash strangled her to death. The injury marks on her neck show that she struggled hard to save herself,” police said.
Prakash later tried to dispose off the body but neighbours who woke up to her cries, rushed to the house and shifted Surekha to a hospital where she was declared dead.

The district Medical and Health Officer Shiva Shankar Reddy conducted an inquiry and shut down the clinic.
District Collector Ram Shankar Naik announced criminal action would be initiated against the persons running it after a thorough enquiry.

Kurnool I Town police registered a case and reportedly took Prakash into custody for questioning.