Meghana Arunkumar breaks silence 10 years after mother's Parramatta Park murder; father is prime suspect
In a 60 Minutes interview, Meghana Arunkumar says it is hard to accept that Arun Govindaraju ordered her mother's killing, even as investigators pursue a suspected contract murder tied to the case.
A Sydney-area murder case has returned to the forefront as Meghana Arunkumar, now 21, publicly spoke about the death of her mother, Prabha Arunkumar, in 2015 and the role investigators say her father, Arun Govindaraju, played in it.
Meghana told 60 Minutes in an interview broadcast Sunday that it has been difficult to reconcile the man she calls her father with police suspicions that he orchestrated the stabbing and then fled to India. The inquest into Prabha Arunkumar’s death, which concluded last month, was watched by Meghana and Govindaraju from abroad as unfamiliar details of the case were laid out in a courtroom setting.
Detectives have long described the Parramatta Park killing as a targeted attack. Prabha Arunkumar, 41, was on her way home from work on March 7, 2015, when she was stabbed in the neck while speaking on the phone with her husband. Police have never identified a suspect in the actual stabbing, but they have indicated Govindaraju as the alleged mastermind behind the crime. He has consistently maintained his innocence and has not faced charges in connection with his wife’s death.
Two details cited by investigators as red flags helped frame the case in its early days. First, Govindaraju reportedly asked his wife to call his mother's phone rather than his own, an instruction police said could have been a way to communicate with a contracted killer from her device. He later claimed the request was due to his own phone’s battery life. The second concern arose when Govindaraju arrived in Australia to collect his wife’s remains and had wiped his phone beforehand. Authorities recovered data indicating he had been lying about an affair back in India, a discrepancy Insp. Ritchie Sim described when he questioned whether love or motive could be driving the crime.
"Love is one of the original motives for murder. Was he lying to us to hide the fact that he was having an affair, or was he lying to us to protect or hide a motive from us?" Sim said during the inquiry.
Meghana said she learned the full scope of the case only during the inquest. She and Govindaraju watched the proceedings from India, where the family relocated after her mother’s death. She said she had known Govindaraju’s lover as a family friend, but she did not realize the depth of the allegations until the hearings.
I don’t think he is involved. I am her daughter, but I do still believe my dad loves her more than anyone in the world. I don’t think my dad has even a little courage to even put a little scratch on my mum’s hand, she told the program, insisting she remains convinced of her father’s innocence despite the grievous accusations surrounding him. The interview captures a family navigating grief, doubt, and the pursuit of truth as a decade-long investigation unfolds across two continents.
The inquest heard from police who described Prabha Arunkumar’s death as potentially a contract killing, known in India as a supari murder. Prosecutors outlined the possibility that an organized crime group could have orchestrated the attack for hire. Details presented in court included Govindaraju’s financial actions in the lead-up to his wife’s death, including a notable withdrawal of funds and a contemporaneous renewal of her life insurance. Investigators also noted that the PIN to her bank account was changed about an hour before she was killed. While the coroner has not ruled out a specific individual as the killer, the evidence presented has underscored a complex web of motive and opportunity.
A global reward of about $1 million remains available to anyone who provides information that could help solve the case. The investigation continues, and authorities in Australia say the case remains open as they pursue new leads and await any information that could bring closure to Meghana and her family.
As Meghana grows older, she said she misses her mother more with each passing year and hopes for final resolution that provides some sense of peace to her family. The case continues to draw attention in Australia and among communities connected to the Arunkumar family as authorities assess new information and revisit earlier theories in light of fresh testimony and public interest.