Indian woman killed, granddaughter abducted in US

Washington, Oct 24: An Indian woman from

visiting the

was

when she apparently tried to resist the

of her 10-month-old granddaughter. Police and FBI have launched a massive manhunt for the assailants and the kidnappers.

"Saanvi Venna (the baby) is believed to have been taken from her family's apartment after the murder of her grandmother, Satayvathi Venna, age 61, on Monday," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in a statement.

Pennsylvania State Police has issued an Amber Child Abduction Alert. According to Ferman, the body of Satyavathi Venna, the paternal grandmother of Saanvi, was discovered inside the apartment.

Satyavathi had arrived from India for a visit in Jul and was scheduled to return home in Jan 2013. She was babysitting the child.

The parents of the child, Venkata Konda Siva Venna (father) and Chenchu Latha Punuru (mother), had emigrated from India in Feb 2007. They previously lived in San Antonio, Texas, Troy Michigan, and Cleveland Ohio. In Jun this year, they moved to King of Prussia in Pennsylvania.

An autopsy of the body of Satyavathi Venna is underway, Ferman said. In a televised news conference, Venkata Konda Siva Venna, made a brief, emotional plea, asking for help to trace his baby.

"If someone finds my baby, could you please bring my baby back?" he was quoted as saying by the Philly Inquirer. According to the daily, the neighbours expressed shock at the incident.

"You always fear the worst," Veronica Nava, 36, who lives in the same complex, told the daily.

PTI