Ludhiana, July 17: An entire family met with their tragic end when Harcharan Singh killed his two minor children and wife by slitting their throats and then set himself ablaze in Guru Angad Dev Nagar, under the Shimlapuri police station, on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
While his children and wife died on the spot, Harcharan succumbed to his burn injuries at the civil hospital later.
The deceased are Harcharan Singh (40), his wife Harminder Kaur (36), daughter Jaswinder Kaur (9) and son Manpreet Singh (6). According to police sources, constant family disputes are believed to have wiped out the family.
Sources said some neighbours and tenants of the family spotted smoke emanating from the house early on Thursday morning. On breaking open the door, which was bolted from inside, they found Harcharan writhing in pain and the bodies of his three family members lying in a pool of blood.
According to sources, after slitting the throats of his family members with a sharp-edged weapon, Harcharan set himself ablaze. The police were informed about the incident and Harcharan was rushed to the civil hospital where he succumbed to his burn injuries later.
SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill said it was very unlikely that someone else had murdered the family. “We are sure that Harcharan Singh committed the gory crime and then set himself ablaze after pouring kerosene on himself.
We concluded this from the fact that the door of the house was bolted from inside and the neighbours had broken open the door after spotting the smoke. Had someone else committed the murders, the room would not have been bolted from inside,” SSP Gill said.
The SSP added that preliminary investigations had revealed that Harcharan was a carpenter but remained unemployed most of the time due to his problem of drug addiction.
The police also claimed that there were frequent fights between the couple and the family lived on the pension of his late father who was a railway employee.
A case has been registered and inquest proceedings were initiated against Harcharan under Section 174 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for committing suicide, SSP Gill said.
–Agencies