Game of hide-and-seek ends in death of boy, father

Coimbatore: A simple game of hide-and-seek among father and children ended in a terrible tragedy for a family at Kanuvai in the city on Thursday evening. A two-year-old boy drowned and his grief-stricken father committed suicide.
Reconstructing the events, police said R Manikandan, 32, who runs a mobile shop, was playing hide-and-seek with his daughter Devadharshini, 5, while his son Dejashvin, 2, toddled around the house. Their mother Poovitha was asleep in a bedroom, resting as she had hurt herself in a fall while playing with the children a few days ago.

Police said Manikandan and Devadarshini took turns to go up to the terrace to keep count while the other hid inside the house. They had been playing for around an hour when Manikandan must have noticed his son was missing. He apparently did a quick search and found the child had drowned in a water tank, which was at ground level without any protective cover or wall.

Without raising the alarm, Manikandan asked an unsuspecting Devadharshini to again go up to the terrace and count while he hid himself. Devadharshini came down in a bit but could not find her father. She found the door of one room was locked. The girl then woke her mother up. Poovitha too tried to open the door but in vain. She then went outside to look through the window and found her husband hanging from the ceiling. Poovitha raised the alarm and neighbours gathered.

It was then that she started searching for her son. Poovitha found the body of the two-year-old in the open water tank. Poovitha and Manikandan had been married for six years.

The Thudiyalur police sent the two bodies to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) for post-mortem. The bodies were handed over to the family on Friday.