Chennai: Police suspect a suicide pact behind the death of three members of an Army officer’s family charred to death in their car off East Coast Road near Kalpakkam last Saturday.
Jeyadevan (52), an auditor, his wife, Rama Devi (50), a retired school teacher of Chromepet and their daughter, J. Divya Sri (24), an engineering graduate, were suspected to have entered into the suicide pact as they were upset over the strained relations in Divya Sri’s married life.
Divya Sri was marred to Army Captain Sharath in December 2016. The couple was based in Pathankot base and had come to Chennai last week to attend to Sharath’s mother suffering from health complications.
The couple had developed misunderstandings and the family had filed a complaint with the local police citing compatibility issues. According to police sources, on the day the trio were charred to death, they were supposed to attend a counselling session at the Tambaram all women’s police station.
While Sharath turned up, Divya Sri and her parents didn’t and took off in their car towards East Coast Road. Around 9 pm, the car was found burning in a residential plot in Manamai between Mamallapuram and Kalpakkam off ECR. Police suspect the family to have doused themselves with petrol inside the car and set themselves ablaze. Kancheepuram distirict police are investigating.
