Chittoor: A 45-year-old man accused of the triple murder of his wife and two children claimed he eliminated his son and daughter too so that they would not question him on why he killed their mother.
"I killed the children so that they do not ask me, when they grow up, why I killed their mother,” the accused Manikkan reportedly told the police.
Manikkan, a washerman, surrendered at the Chittoor police station on Monday morning and claimed he had murdered his wife Kumari, 35, son Manoj, 14, and daughter Megha, 12 past Sunday midnight.
The police conclusion is that a domestic fight Manikkan had with his wife led to the murder. He had stayed awake until midnight, playing music loudly while Kumari and children had gone to sleep after dinner. He likely murdered the three between 12 am and 3 am.
All three were hacked in their necks with a machete Manikkan had taken from the kitchen. Manoj, a class 10 student, had injuries on his hands which he might have received while trying to resist the attack.
Even immediate neighbours knew about the murder of three people only after the police arrived in the locality with Manikkan for evidence gathering.
Kumari was working as a domestic help. They lived in a rented accommodation in Chittoor because they both had work there. They had their own house at Karinjalipallathu, Nalleppalli. Investigators have gathered that the husband and wife had a fight on Sunday as he insisted on shifting to their own house.
After the murders, Manikkan left home by 4 am, and headed for the police station. He visited his aunt at Chandanappuram and handed over his identifying documents and Rs 25,000, had a cup of tea from an outlet and reached the police station by 7 am.
Manoj, who studied at the Rajas High School in Kollengode, was staying at his maternal uncle's place for studies and was home for the puja holidays. Megha was a class 6 student at the Victoria Girls School at Chittoor.
Kumari's relatives suspect that Manikkan did not carry out the three murders all by himself. However, they haven't lodged a police complaint.
