Ahmedabad: Spiralling into despair amid crippling stock market losses, a 42-year-old man killed his wife and five-year-old son before trying to end his life in the Sargasan area of Gandhinagar on Thursday. A suicide note found at Haresh Vaghela’s residence revealed details of his debt and financial problems, said police.
The incident came to light when a neighbour’s child, aged around 8, went to Vaghela’s house, seeking a replacement bulb. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. She found the door ajar and stepped into a nightmare: Vaghela lay unconscious on the floor with deep cuts on his wrist, while his wife, Asha, and their son were found lifeless nearby, the latter bearing severe head injuries.
Police investigation indicate that Vaghela first strangled Asha, 40, then struck his son’s head against a safe, which bore bloodstains, before cutting his wrist with a sharp object.
Police said Vaghela was employed at a saloon. The family, who had moved into Shri Rang Nano City-1 about one and a half years ago, originally belong to Surendranagar district. They had no history of conflicts with neighbours, said police. The neighbours were allegedly in shock that Vaghela took such a drastic step.
Infocity police registered a murder case and sent the bodies for postmortem. Vaghela remains in critical condition at Gandhinagar Civil Hospital, while police work to uncover further details about the family’s financial struggles and any other factors that might have contributed to this tragedy.