Madurai: Depressed over wife’s death, man kills sons, ends life

MADURAI: A 42-year-old labourer in a village near Alanganallur in Madurai district murdered his two sons by feeding them with poison-laced bananas and committed suicide by consuming the same.
The deceased have been identified as R Sundar, 42, of Ariyur and his sons, S Sunil, 13, and Vimal, 9. Sunil and Vimal were studying in classes VIII and V, respectively. Sundar took the extreme step on Monday night.
Sundar’s wife Indhumathi, who had been suffering from an ailment, died on October 7, 2019. Since then, Sundar was finding it difficult to take care of his sons. He had to leave the house in the early hours for work. He was also depressed by the death of his wife, police said.
On Monday evening, after his sons returned home, he fed them the bananas laced with pesticide used for agricultural purposes and consumed it. Soon, they went unconscious and died.
The murders and suicide came to light on Tuesday morning. Neighbours, who found the door remaining closed till late in the morning, looked into the house through a window and found Sunder and sons lying on the floor. They alerted the Alanganallur police.
A team rushed to the spot and broke open the main door and entered the house. They found that the three had died long ago. The bodies were shifted to the Government Rajaji Hospital, where a postmortem was carried out.
Based on a complaint a case was registered with the Alanganallur police station and a detailed inquiry was under way.