Unemployed man strangles kids, hangs self in Andheri

Left suicide note apologising to wife, who runs the house by working as labourer in Singapore.

A 45-year-old unemployed man strangulated his two children and later committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan at his Andheri (East) residence on Wednesday, the police said.

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Santosh Alkar lived with his children, Sunil, a 10-year-old boy studying at Bombay Cambridge School in Andheri and Mitali, a seven-year-old girl studying at a school in Vile Parle, at his residence in Tarun Bharati cooperative housing society close to Chakala fish market in Andheri (East), the police said. His wife, Radha, has been working as a labourer in Singapore for the past year, they added.

“After the children returned home from school in the afternoon around 1.30pm, Santosh strangulated both the children with a rope, following which he hung himself from the ceiling fan,” said senior inspector Pradip Gosavi of Andheri police station.

The police said Santosh and the children would visit Santosh’s sister, Asha, who lived in the vicinity every afternoon for lunch.

But because the trio did not turn up on Wednesday, Asha went to Santosh’s place to look for them around 2pm.

“Asha knocked at their door several times, but got no response. She eventually broke the door down with the help of a few neighbours,” said Vijay Panchal, Santosh’s brother-in-law.

The trio was immediately rushed to Cooper Hospital, but they were declared dead at admission, the police said.

The police said Santosh worked as an LIC agent but had been unemployed for the past few years.

“All their domestic expenses including the tuition fees of the children were taken care of by his wife, Radha who had been sending money for her family from Singapore for the past year,” said Gosavi.

The police said Santosh left a suicide note that said he was severely diabetic and there would be no one to take care of his children in case of his death.

“Santosh wrote that because there will be no one to look after his children once he passes away due to high diabetes, he was killing his children. He has also mentioned his wife in the note saying that he was apologetic to her because he could not fend for his family, thereby forcing her to work,” said Gosavi.