COIMBATORE: A 54-year-old man murdered his 15-year-old daughter by slitting her throat with a knife before jumping to death in full public view from the third floor of his apartment at the slum clearance board’s housing unit at Aathikattur near Maniyakaranpalayam in Salem district. The man resorted to the crime in the early hours of Friday after his daughter allegedly shamed him over his unstable mental condition.
Edappadi police said Gopal, a vegetable seller, committed the murder when his wife was away in Dharmapuri for agriculture work. “He had been under treatment at the Salem government hospital for mental illness for the past one and a half years,” a police officer said.
He said Gopal, who was not working for the past six months, also had a 17-year-old son, who was employed with a bakery at Edappadi. “He was staying at a relative’s house.”
On Thursday night, the officer said, Gopal had called up his relatives, saying he had slit his daughter’s throat and murdered her. “But the relatives did not believe him and asked him to go to sleep. Yet, they came to check on them at their slum clearance board’s apartment around 3,30am on Friday and found his daughter Priyanka in a pool of blood. When they questioned him, Gopal said she had called him “mental” and killed her in a fit of rage.”
Meanwhile, the officer said, neighbours also gathered at the place. “Around 4am, he jumped off the third floor of the housing unit, killing himself.” When alerted, Edappadi police sub-inspector Rajendran and team sent both the bodies to Salem GH for postmortem. Police have registered a case and are investigating.