Last rites of slain Mines and Geology officer performed at Tirthahalli

SHIVAMOGGA: The last rites of senior geologist Prathima K S, who was working with the Mines and Geology Department, were conducted today at her native Tirthahalli as per Hindu customs. The couple’s young son Partha lit the funeral pyre at the Hindu cremation ground.

Prathima lived on the first floor of an independent house. She was killed after she returned from work.

Prathima was brutally murdered by her former driver Kiran on Saturday night after she had returned home from work, at her house at Kuvempu Nagar in Doddakallasandra. The killer was caught from Male Mahadeshwara Hills on Sunday and brought to Bengaluru where he was arrested and produced before a court.

The mortal remains were first kept in the old house for some time and then shifted to the new house.

After postmortem examination at KIMS Hospital in Bengaluru, Prathima’s body was brougth to her native where it was kept for public viewing at the couple’s old house for some time and then shifted to the newly-constructed house on the Shivamogga-Tirthahalli road before the final rites were performed.

The mortal remains were taken to the new house before the cremation.

Former minister Kimmane Rathnakar, who hails from Tirthahalli was among those who paid their last respects. “She had achieved much at quite a young age and would have achieved more. The family is well known in Tirthahalli and injustice has been done to them. The family should get justice and the perpetrators should be punished”, he said.