Coimbatore: A 56-year-old painter killed his two children and then committed suicide by consuming pesticide in Coimbatore on Wednesday.
Rajendran, residing in Anbu Nagar near Eddayarpalayam, had separated from his first wife Vijaya when she was ill and had married another women Manjula 16 years ago.
While Rajendran had two children namely Prabha 15, and Sukesh 13, he often went into bouts of depression since Manjula went missing sometime back.
He even stopped his children from going to school and failed to take care of them, police said. Things took a turn for the worse on Tuesday night, when the painter’s neighbours heard a cry from Rajendran’s house. They rushed in to find that the two children were found lying on the ground and within few minutes Rajendran also fainted.
Neighbors rang up the ‘108 Ambulance’ and took all three to Coimbatore Government hospital. Despite doctors’ best efforts to save them, Prabha died around 12.30 am on Wednesday and Sukesh died around 2.15 am, police said. Few minutes later, Rajendran also passed away.
A police official from Thudiyaloor police station told the DC that preliminary investigations with the neighbours revealed that Rajendran had ‘ditched’ his first wife and two children long back. His second wife, Manjula ditched him when she had an illegal affair with another person two years back and had eloped with him, police said, quoting the neighbours.
Unable to come out of depression, Rajendran gave his children pesticide mixed in a cool drink and killed them before he consumed the remaining pesticide, police added.
