KSRP head constable kills autistic son, hangs self

BENGALURU:  A head constable committed suicide after killing his four-year-old son at a lodge on Cottonpet Main Road. Police said the incident might have taken place on Saturday night after he checked in to the lodge. It came to light on Monday when the staff noticed his body and alerted the police. The deceased is Vishwanath M (41), and his son Samvith, who was said to be specially challenged. Vishwanath, a native of Gundlupet in Chamrajnagar district, was working with Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) 5th Battalion in Mysuru.

A senior police officer said that Vishwanath had come to the Vasanthraj Paradise lodge late at night and checked into a room in the third floor. He told the hotel staff that he had come for his son’s treatment and had given a Mysuru address. He did not inform his wife Bhavya, a teaching faculty in a private college, or his parents when he left Mysuru on Saturday.

Vishwanath left a suicide note stating that no one was responsible for his death and also apologised to his wife for taking this extreme step. He was extremely upset as his son was autistic and had approached a couple of schools for his admission, which the school managements had denied. He had discussed the same with his family and relatives. “It was not bearable to spend two days with my son. How have you been managing the kid since so many days?” he asked his wife in the suicide note.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that Vishwanath had left the home on a bike and parked it at KSRTC bus stand in Mysuru before reaching Bengaluru by bus. Relatives found CCTV footage and had filed a missing persons case with Mysuru police. He had gone to Nanjanagudu to book a lodge but the staff there denied giving him a room” He poisoned his son before smothering and then hanged himself. The door was partially closed and the lodge staff peeped in to find his body hung, the officer added. Relatives of Vishwanath shared information with some of the KSRP staff as well as on social media when he went missing. They visited some of the lodges around Mysuru and other localities to find him. 

Lodge staff  assaults journalist
The staff at Vasanthraj Paradise objected to a reporter’s presence while he was gathering information from Vishwanath’s relatives, who rushed to the spot after the incident came to light. The staff intervened and stopped them from sharing details of the deceased and snatched the reporter’s phone to delete documents. The staff also assaulted the reporter and threatened him to leave the name of the lodge out of the story. A case was filed at the Cottonpet police station.