A 40-year-old man electrocuted his two children and died by suicide in Tamil Nadu on Friday. The incident took place at Saveriyarpuram near Pudukottai in Tuticorin district. Police said the man was depressed after his wife left him to live with another man.
According to police, the man, was distraught after his wife left the family around six months ago and was reportedly living with another man. This allegedly left him depressed, after which he stopped going to work regularly as a truck driver and instead took up painting jobs occasionally.
The deceased children were his 14-year-old daughter, a Class IX student, and his 12-year-old son, a Class VII student. Both studied at a private school, according to a Times of India report.
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Police said that on Friday, the man brought food for the children and asked them to go to sleep. He allegedly killed them while they were asleep before electrocuting himself using the same wire.
His 75-year-old father, who lived with the family, was sleeping outside the room. When the door remained locked until noon on Saturday, he alerted neighbours, who informed the Pudukottai police, said the report.
After breaking open the door, police found the three lying dead on a cot with electric wires bound to their bodies. Pudukottai police said the bodies were sent to Tuticorin Government Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination. and a case has been registered to investigate the matter further.
The Tuticorin deaths come amid a string of recent cases involving the deaths of minors in Tamil Nadu. In June, a 17-year-old boy was apprehended for allegedly sexually assaulting and murdering a nine-year-old boy in Pudukottai after the child went missing while playing.
In another case, a three-year-old girl died after she was allegedly lured with a biscuit and sexually assaulted in Thiruvallur district. Police arrested a migrant worker from Bihar in connection with the case, saying the investigation found only one accused was involved.
