Depressed man kills daughter, self

It was an opportunity for 7-year-old Lakshya to spend some time with her father Arvind a day before he was to return to Singapore. The father-daughter duo were holidaying at the Bannerghatta National Park on Friday. The happy girl drew sketches of her father Arvind holding her hand. Little did she know that later that night her father would poison her before ending his own life.

Arvind (37), a senior sales executive working in Singapore, had come to meet his daughter 10 days back. His daughter Lakshya was living with her grandmother in JP Nagar 7th Phase. Arvind had lost his wife Sindhu to a kidney failure two years back and was depressed, police said.

After arriving in Bangalore, Arvind took his mother, younger brother and daughter on a vacation to Andaman Islands and returned on Wednesday.

After a day’s break, on Friday, Arvind took his daughter to the Jungle Lodges in Bannerghatta. According to the police, he checked in at 11 am and went on the safari with Lakshya, and returned around 6 pm. He called his mother at 7.30 pm and told her that they would get home late. He asked his mother not to call him again since his phone’s battery would die soon.

When he did not return home that night, his family grew suspicious. They informed the local police station. Their bodies were discovered in the morning by the resort staff. After repeated knocking on the door yielded no response, the staff called the Bannerghatta Police, who broke open the window to find Arvind hanging from the ceiling. Police found a suicide note which said, “I am sorry....Please burn all gifts my wife gave me when we were in love along with my body.”

Arvind and Sindhu’s was an inter-caste marriage. Lakshya had completed grade II. Sources close to the family said on Thursday, Arvind had called Lakshya for a movie but she had declined.