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A 40-year-old civil engineer allegedly killed his wife and two children in a forest near here, claiming that he committed the offence out of depression as he, his wife and daughter were suffering from AIDS,
police said today.
The accused (name witheld) surrendered before Amravati police in Maharashtra yesterday.
The incident took place on the intervening night of March 3-4 when the engineer, working with a PSU at Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, was returning from his hometown Amravati with his family, police inspector S K Singh told PTI today.
He stopped his car close to Gaunighat under Multai police station limits near here and after alighting from it, he pushed the vehicle into a gorge.
The accused then descended from the hill and set the vehicle with his family inside on fire, he said. After this, he claimed to have allegedly made a futile attempt to hang himself to death.
However, later he felt guilty of killing his family and surrendered before the Amravati police yesterday following which he was brought here, the inspector said. Police later recovered the bodies of his 38-year-old wife and two daughters, aged 9 and 2, he said.
During interrogation, the accused told police that he was under depression after contracting AIDS in Delhi. He said that his wife and younger daughter too were HIV positive because of which he was quite disturbed.
The accused claimed that earlier too he and his wife had planned to kill their children and end their lives by consuming food laced with poison on March 1 at Amravati, but dropped the idea at the last minute, the police officer said.
Meanwhile, the family members said that they were unaware of the accused and his family being infected with HIV. Police have booked the accused under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC, Singh said adding, further investigation was on in the case.