Upset over wife's death, man kills daughter, self in Bangaloregalore

Bangalore, Apr 28: Unable to come to terms with his wife’s death, a 35-year-old man committed suicide after killing his daughter at a jungle lodge and resort in Bannerghatta National Park. The incident came to light on Saturday.

Aravind Ramaswamy Reddy, employed with an MNC in Singapore and his daughter Lakshya (8) checked into the resort run by the tourism department on Friday and took a guided tour of the park in the afternoon. They were served dinner in their room, an employee of the resort told police.

An attendant who called on the father-daughter duo at their room on Saturday morning grew suspicious after nobody responded to his knocks. He alerted his colleagues, who broke open the door, only to find Aravind and Lakshya dead.

Lakshya was found lying on a cot, frothing at the mouth while Aravind lay on the floor with a towel around his neck. His legs were tied with plastic string. The Bannerghatta police were immediately informed.

The police claimed to have recovered a suicide note, wherein Aravind held himself responsible for his action. Depression over his wife’s death drove him to kill himself and his daughter, Aravind wrote in the note. He also appealed his family to bury him and Lakshya next to his wife and burn the gifts the couple had exchanged over the years.

Sources said the police found sleeping pills in the room. The police suspected that Aravind might have served Lakshya “rasam” spiked with sleeping pills for dinner.

He then tied his legs and strangled himself with a towel. It was not clear whether Aravind consumed sleeping pills as well.

Aravind met Sindhura while pursuing engineering in a City college. They fell in love and got married. However, the halcyon days of their married life came to an abrupt end as Sindhura died of renal failure four years ago.

Lakshya, a class IV student at Lawrence School in J P Nagar, was living with her uncle Kishore at J P Nagar, 7th Phase. Aravind stayed alone in Singapore, but visited India at least once in three months. He arrived a few days ago and took the family to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for a holiday.