Kids burnt alive in family tiff

Chennai: A 40-year-old load auto rickshaw driver allegedly burnt alive two of his minor children before attempting to commit suicide by setting himself on fire in Singaperumalkoil near Chengalpet in neighbouring Kancheepuram district on Tuesday night. He was upset over his wife’s decision to take their kids to her parents’ house and stay there, leaving his parents unattended.

Police said that the man, Sampath, poured kerosene on his children, Karthik 11, a seventh class student and Keerthana, 9, a sixth class student, while they were sleeping in the house and set fire to them in Kollamedu street. He later doused himself with the fuel and set himself ablaze. Hearing cries from the house neighbours tried to rescue them. They could only take Sampath, who suffered 80 per cent burns, to hospital while the children were charred to death.

Sampath is currently undergoing treatment at Kilpauk medical college hospital here. Police said that Sampath was very frustrated over his wife Selvi’s decision to shift the place of stay from Kollamedu to Sengundram.Though the distance was only 6 km, he was unhappy because his parents were staying in a house nearby in Kollamedu. He was also finding it difficult to drop and pick up the kids from school.

On Tuesday evening he picked up Karthik and Keerthana from school and told them that he would take them to his house on Tuesday night and called her wife to say that she can join them if she wants. She could not start from her parents place because it was too late. Later that night, he indulged in the ghastly act after he had fed the kids with hotel food and put them to sleep.