Couple kills 7-year-old autistic son, commits suicide in Kanyakumari

It has been learnt that the couple was undergoing a lot of stress due to their son. The man, who worked in an IT firm in Bengaluru, had lost his job during the pandemic and was later practising as a lawyer.

Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu): A couple allegedly killed their autism-affected seven-year-old son and then committed suicide in their house in Thuckalay in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district on Saturday.

The deceased couple, identified as Muralidharan (40) from Mukilankudiyiruppu and Sailaja (36) from Thuckalay, used to be in acute stress due to their son, Jeeva, police said. The incident was revealed when Sailaja's father reached the couple's rented house to hand over milk to the boy.

Initially Muralidharan worked in a private IT company in Bengaluru and married Sailaja, a biotechnology graduate in Manali in 2010. The couple lived in Bengaluru and around six years after marriage Jeeva was born. Although initially, the boy seemed to be like any other healthy child, he soon developed autistic traits.

During the pandemic, Muralidharan lost his job. After which, he came with his family to his wife's hometown in Thuckalay. He then studied law and started practising as a lawyer in Nagercoil court. They moved to a rented house in Thuckalay three years back.

Likewise other days, when Sailaja's father, Gopal reached their house to give milk to Jeeva on Saturday evening, he found the door locked from inside. Despite knocking the door several times, it was not opened. Gopal with the help of neighbours broke the lock. On entering the house, he found Muralitharan dead in the hall and Sailaja lying on the floor of the next room while her son was dead on the bed. The police were informed.

A team of Thuckalay police led by DSP Udayasuriyan reached the spot and recovered the three bodies. The bodies were sent to Asaripallam Government Medical College Hospital for postmortem.

According to police, it is being suspected that the distraught couple first killed their son and and then committed suicide. Probe is on and the cause of death can be ascertained after going through the postmortem report, police said.