CHENNAI: Three persons died of suffocation due to a refrigerator gas leak, at their house at East Tambaram, on Thursday morning. The deceased- Prasanna, 36, a television channel reporter with a Tamil news channel, his wife Archana, 32 and mother Revathi, 59, were residing at Thirumangai Mannan Street, East Tambaram.
“On Thursday morning at around 10 am, the maid had knocked on their door, but no one answered. She noticed black smoke from their kitchen window and the door locked from inside,” said Ravi Shankar, a relative of Prasana.
The maid immediately alerted the neighbours who informed the fire and rescue service. A fire personnel team broke open the door, only to find Revathi and Prasana lying dead in the front room and Archana lying dead on the bedroom floor.
Police said, the three of them did not have burn injuries and since the house was blackened and things were shattered, they suspected the trio to have died of suffocation. The bodies were shifted to Chromepet government hospital.
During the investigation, it was found that there was gas leakage from the refrigerator which caused the smoke. Since their house was situated on the first floor, neighbours did not hear any sound of help or could not see smoke.
“Last evening, Prasana and Revathi had returned home at around 4.30. That was the last time they were seen. The maid informed us about the incident this morning and when we went inside the house, we found struggle marks - marks of their hands on the walls of the front room. They were probably trying to get out of the house but due to the thick smoke, were not able to find the main door,” added Ravi Shankar.
While Prasana had worked in other Tamil news channels earlier, he was last working with J News. His wife worked as a teacher in a private school nearby and his mother retired from a government job last year. The couple were married four years ago and resided in an apartment in Selaiyur for over two years. The Selaiyur registered a case and further investigations are on.