A 40-year-old man allegedly electrocuted his two children before dying by suicide in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, police said. The incident took place in Saveriyarpuram near Pudukottai and is believed to have been driven by personal distress.
According to police, the man had been struggling emotionally after his wife left the family around six months ago and reportedly began living with another man. Investigators said he had become depressed, stopped working regularly as a truck driver and took up painting jobs occasionally.
The victims were his 14-year-old daughter, a Class IX student, and his 12-year-old son, a Class VII student, both of whom studied at a private school.
Police said the man brought food for the children on Friday and asked them to sleep. He allegedly electrocuted them while they were asleep before using the same electrical wire to end his own life.
The man’s 75-year-old father, who lived with the family, was sleeping outside the room. When the door remained locked until Saturday afternoon, he alerted neighbours, who informed the police.
After forcing open the door, officers found the bodies of the father and his two children lying on a cot with electric wires attached to them. The bodies were sent to Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Police have registered a case and launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the incident.
