Chennai: Unbearable financial burden forced a man to murder four of his family members, including his two young children aged 7 and 5 by slashing their throats while they were asleep at his apartment in Pammal near Pallavaram, south of the city on Tuesday.
M Damodharan (38) later attempted to kill himself in a similar manner, but was rescued in time and is in a critical condition at a city hospital.
A five-page suicide note has been recovered from his house in which Damodharan had attributed mounting debts to be the reason behind his extreme step, police said.
Murugesan ran a textile store in the same area, which he took over from his late father and was also into real estate and finance business. Preliminary investigations have revealed that he has debts of several lakh rupees.
Police identified the deceased as, Deepa (32), Damodharan’s wife, his mother, Saraswathi (62) and his children, Roshan (7) and Meenakshi (5).
What’s more pitiful is that the family had celebrated the birthday of the elder child Roshan only on Sunday, which also turned out to be his last.
Around 7 30 am, Damodharan had called his brother-in-law, Raja and went on an emotional tirade. “I would be forever indebted to you. You have always helped me in my tough times. Without repaying it, I am leaving this world. I am taking my family too with me. Please forgive me”, Damodharan had told Raja over the phone, according to police.
Alarmed, Raja alerted his parents who live two streets away from Damodharan’s apartment. When the elderly couple - Balakrishnan and Banumathi - reached the apartment in Thiruvalluvar Nagar, they found the family lying in a pool of blood. Hearing their screams, neighbours from other apartments rushed and found Damodharan still alive.
He was moved to a nearby hospital and was then been shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Sankar Nagar Police secured the bodies and moved them to Chromepet Government General Hospital for post mortem.
“We suspect Damodharan to have slashed their throats while they were asleep. It is not clear if he had poisoned them before that”, an investigating officer said.
Neighbours said that they did not hear any screams from the apartment.
Deepa’s parents had visited the family on Monday and had left around 10 30 pm. Police suspect the murder to have happened around 4 am. Further investigations are on.
