Madurai couple end lives after murdering daughter

MADURAI: A

couple

ended their lives in

Madurai

on Saturday night after murdering their two-year-old

daughter

.

The deceased have been identified as R Vijayakumar,40, of Pandhadi 5th Street, his wife V Vanisri, 38, and their daughter Harshini.

Vijayakumar and Vanisri got married three years ago.

Vijayakumar was a

goldsmith

. He purchased old gold jewellery and made new jewellery out of them. He faced a loss in the business, forcing him to borrow money from many people.

He got a loan of Rs 20 lakh from Karupaiah. Karupaiah had arranged the money from his friend.

Karupaiah asked Vijayakumar to repay a part of the money as his friend had started asking him to return the money.

Vijayakumar asked Karupaiah to visit his house on Sunday to collect the money. When Karupaiah went there on Sunday morning, he found the house closed. He inquired neighbours about his whereabouts. As they had not seen them since morning, they went to check. There was no response. Neighbours alerted police.

Police, neighbours and Karupaiah entered the house by breaking open the door and found the couple hanging from the ceiling of a room. The child was found dead nearby. It is suspected that the child was poisoned to death.

The South Gate police registered a case based on a complaint by Vanisri’s father Muthukrishnan of Villapuram.