Man kills family over suspicion of conversion, dies by suicide in Mangaluru
Police said the bodies of the 30-year-old, his 26-year-old wife, their eight-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, were found in their house.
Four members of a family in Karnataka’s Mangaluru city were found dead on Wednesday with the police saying that a 30-year-old man may have killed his wife and two children over suspicion of religious conversion, before dying by suicide himself.
Police said the bodies of the 30-year-old, his 26-year-old wife, their eight-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, were found in their house. Officials said that the man sent a voice note to the assistant sub-inspector of Mangaluru South police station around 10.45am, saying he died by suicide.
“In the voice note, the man said a woman was trying to get this wife to convert her religion. He told the officer that the woman was responsible for the suicide. He also sent a photo of death note with the same information,” said an officer in the know of the development.
Soon after, a team was dispatched to the man’s house and the team discovered the bodies.
Mangaluru Police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said that Mangaluru South Police had suo motu registered a case under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to suicide) against the woman mentioned in the voice note and she was taken into custody.
Police said the couple had marital troubles and the man, who had a drinking problem, had been accused of domestic violence by the wife over a period of time. In October this year, she left home, prompting her husband to file a missing persons complaint.
During the investigation, the woman said she was living with a female acquaintance -- the same person the husband said was trying to convert his wife, said a senior Mangaluru police officer.
In October, the wife appeared in a police station and said she was going back to her husband. “It is unclear what happened after that, but it seems that the man suspects that his wife will change her religion and the problems between the couple surfaced again,” said a Mangaluru police official, requesting anonymity.
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