The parents killed their daughter using a pillow while she was asleep in the early hours of June 7 in their house in Kalukuntla in Jogulamba-Gadwal district and sought to project it as natural death, claiming she died of heart attack.

However, following specific information and suspicion raised by the village secretary over the death of the woman, a college student, a probe was launched and the couple arrested on charges of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 after post-mortem, police said.

The parents decided to kill the woman, the youngest of their three daughters, a day after she was found pregnant and refused to undergo abortion, police said.

The woman had fallen in love with the man while pursuing her degree course in Kurnool district in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and informed her parents about it after she was found pregnant during an examination by a doctor.

Her parents feared that their daughter may elope with her lover and brought pressure on her to go for abortion. Though initially she agreed, later she  declined, following which they killed her and told everyone that their daughter died of heart attack, the police official said.

When a police team went to their house and insisted on a post-mortem after noticing some marks on her body indicating a struggle, the parents tried to stop it, saying there was no need.

Later, police shifted the body to a hospital where a post-mortem revealed the woman was “throttled to death”. Her parents during interrogation confessed to killing their daughter, the official said, adding they were arrested.