After domestic tiff, sales exec kills 2 daughters

Police said Padmanaban, a sales executive working in a private firm, had an argument with his wife Selvarani (38) on Thursday evening and demanded Rs 70,000 from her to clear his debts. Selvarani had become immobile after a suffering stroke attack a few years ago.

He also picked up a quarrel with his mother Prema (63), who resides alone nearby, asking her for money. Alerted by the loud noise, neighbours informed the Singanallur police, who arrived and pacified the family members.

Police said Selvarani’s sister Yashoda Devi came to the house and sought to take Selvarani and the two girls to her home for the night, believing that things would return to normalcy the next day.

As Padmanaban threatened to commit suicide if his daughters were taken away, it was decided to leave them with him while Selvarani left with her sister.

On Friday, around 6.30 am, Prema came to the house to prepare breakfast and to get her granddaughters ready for school.

After preparing the food, Prema tried to wake up the girls around 8 am when she discovered that both were dead.

On receiving information, a police team led by Deputy Commissioner Balaji Saravanan rushed to the spot. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Padmanaban had killed his daughters by smothering them with a pillow.

Police suspect that the victims were given sleeping pills mixed in milk before they slept. “There was no injury marks or indications of struggle from the girls while being murdered,” said a police officer.

The two girls aged 15 and 8 respectively were studying in a private school. A case has been registered and two special teams of police are on the lookout for Padmanaban, who is on the run.