CHENNAI: A 47-year-old man allegedly murdered his wife and nine-year-old daughter when they were asleep in their house in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar early Sunday morning and fled.
The man's son, who was in another room, woke up and found the dead bodies of his mother and sister and alerted the police, who secured the accused later in the day.The accused, Srinivasan, was working as a security guard at a private hospital in Anna Nagar and lived with his family on Devaki Ammal Street. His wife, Sivaranjini, was a homemaker while his son, Pranav (15), is a Class 10 student, and his daughter, Harini, was a Class 4 student.
Srinivasan's mother, Mythili (65), stayed with the family as well. Mythili resides on the ground floor of the house, while others reside on the first floor.
Investigations revealed that Srinivasan had been undergoing treatment for mental health problems for the past two years and was on prescribed medication.
The couple would regularly quarrel, and the wife allegedly threatened to move out and live with her parents. On Saturday night, after Srinivasan returned home from work, another argument broke out.
During the argument, Sivaranjini allegedly told Srinivasan that her parents were planning to get her married to someone else. The argument then subsided, and the family went to sleep.
Srinivasan woke up after midnight, slit the throats of Sivaranjini and Harini and fled. Later in the morning, Pranav came up to the first floor and found his mother and sister lying in a pool of blood. He told his grandmother, who alerted the police. The bodies were recovered and sent to a government hospital for post-mortem examination.
Police sources said that Srinivasan tried to contact his son over the phone, after which the police traced and arrested him from Ambattur.