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Bangalore: A woman, 33, who was working in a software firm as HR manger, was murdered by an unidentified attacker in front of her five-year-old daughter in JP Nagar on Thursday night.
 
The girl was found unconscious, but with her eyes open near Jyothi Lakshmi’s body in the bedroom of their second-floor house. It is suspected the traumatized child was next to the body for 12 hours.
 
The girl was shifted to a private hospital where she is recovering. A scratch on the child’s face raised suspicion she had been attacked.
 
Police said the attacker had stabbed the mother in the neck and the abdomen with an intention to kill, probably because of personal revenge. He is appeared to have spared the girl.
 
Jyothi had married Hemachandra six years ago. They split two years ago and were in the midst of divorce proceedings.
 
There were no signs of any forced entry into the JP Nagar residence of Jyothi Lakshmi. The house was not ransacked either.

HS Revanna, deputy commissioner of police (south), said, "The fact that there was no forced entry and belongings were found intact shows that someone known to her had come there last night".
 
An investigating officer explained the scene of crime. "On a sofa in the main hall, there was a bowl with scrambled egg in it, and some currency notes of Rs 10 and 20 denominations. The TV was on and some cartoon channel was playing. What you deduce from the scene of crime is that whoever came to the house that night was known to her and it wasn’t a murder for gain," the office added.
 
Police have recovered a dagger from a storm water drain close to the house. A police officer claimed they have a vital clue in the case. Late in the night, sources said they had picked up someone known to Jyothi in connection with the murder.
 
The incident came to the light on Friday morning when Jyothi’s father couldn’t get in touch with her. Narsaiah, a former Kirloskar employee and Rajajinagar resident, said he tried calling his daughter over 10 times on Thursday night, but there was no response.
 
Narsaiah presumed his daughter was caught up with something urgent and didn’t bother.
 
However, when he called her up again on Friday morning, the phone was switched off. This time he was worried and he made a call to Nagaraj, a neighbour of Jyothi. Many years ago, Narasaiah was a tenant of Nagaraj and they knew each other much before Jyothi moved to the house next door. Nagaraj, who was at work, called up his wife, Susheela, and asked her to check on Jyothi.
 
"I walked into the house, I could see her leg and she lay on the floor. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran down. I asked tenants downstairs to see what had happened and help her if she was still alive," said Susheela.

After the tenants backed out, she ran to a construction site nearby and got some workers from there for help. Meanwhile, a call was made to Ramesh Babu, owner of the building, and police were summoned.
 
The mother-daughter duo stayed on 2nd Main, 2nd Cross in Venkatadri Layout, JP Nagar, as it was close to her workplace. According to neighbours, Hemachandra used to visit his daughter once in a while. Following the murder, Hemachandra and his lawyer went to the police station and gave a statement, police sources said.