Nithyashree, 13, and Hariharan, 8. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Four members of a family were found dead in a pool of blood at their house at Pozhichalur near Pallavaram on Saturday.
The head of the family, an IT worker, allegedly murdered his wife and two children, aged 13 and 8, before taking his own life, the police said.
The victims were identified as Prakash, 41, his wife Gayathri, 39, their daughter Nithyashri, 13, and son Hariharan, 8. The tragedy came to light when Prakash’s father went to their home on Saturday morning.
The Sankar Nagar police sent the bodies to Government General Hospital, Chromepet, for post-mortem.
Tambaram Commissioner of Police M. Ravi and Deputy Commissioner of Police M.R. Sibi Chakravarthy inspected the scene of crime.
Experts from the Forensic Science Department collected samples. The police recovered a suicide note from the house. Preliminary investigation revealed that Prakash could have taken the extreme step as he ran into debt while trying to expand his wife’s Siddha medicine outlet.
Mr. Ravi said, “As per our initial investigation, Prakash procured an electric wood-cutting machine online on May 19. He murdered his wife and children before ending his life. It is suspected that he took the extreme decision because of financial burden and we have recovered a suicide note stuck on the wall.”
A senior officer said there was no sign of struggle by the children and the woman. It is suspected that they were given sedatives before being murdered. Prakash also drank alcohol.
The family had gone to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the couple on Friday night and Prakash had messaged his colleague to submit the work laptop to his superior. The police recovered a document that showed that they had taken a loan of ₹3.5 lakh.
Another officer said they were gathering call records of the couple to check if people who had given the loans, had harassed them for repayment.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.)
