A 45-year-old woman Kavitha and her 17-year-old daughter Jagashree were found brutally murdered at their family owned coffee estate at Doddamalte village at Somwarpet in Kodagu district on Tuesday. According to the police, the duo were working in their plantation when they were attacked by unidentified perpetrators.

Around Tuesday evening, when the murdered woman's son tried to contact his mother and sister over mobile phone, they were unreachable. “Eventually he informed his neighbours, who coordinated a search-effort of the coffee estate, it was only later that the locals discovered the bodies in the estate and informed us,” a local police official said.

Based on the marks on the bodies, the officials from the jurisdictional Somwarpet police station said that both the victims were attacked by unidentified perpetrators repeatedly with a sharp edged weapon.

“We believe that both the victims were attacked in the afternoon, but since there was a delay in finding them and providing medical assistance, there was excessive bleeding that eventually lead to their death,” police official said.

According to the police, the woman's husband had died a few years ago and the mother and children looked after the agricultural property.

It was barely a few weeks ago that the daughter, a 12th standard student at St. Philomena College in Hassan, had come home for the summer holidays. The son is completing his high school at Virajpet.

Based on preliminary interviews of the locals, police officials suspect an internal property dispute as the primary reason for the crime. “The investigation is ongoing, however we have been informed that a few individuals had a tussle with the woman over trespassing the property. We are probing if that or related issues have led to the crime,” police said.

Story by www.storyinfinity.com (Subs and Scribes Media Ventures LLP).