Kerala: NIT Calicut staff and wife die in fire; Police suspect murder, suicide attempt
KOZHIKODE: A technician of the civil engineering department of the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT), Mukkam, Kozhikode and his wife were found dead due to burns.
Ajayakumar (56) and Lini (48), natives of Karunagappally, died in a fire at Kozhikode NIT quarters at 4 am on Thursday.
According to preliminary information, Ajayakumar suffocated his wife to death over marital issues. He then poured kerosene on her and then reportedly released LPG gas in the kitchen. He even attempted to kill his sleeping son who however escaped with burns.
"There are signs that he tried to suffocate his son too with a pillow. But the boy stayed motionless. Thinking that his son too was dead, Ajayakumar set fire to the house. When Ajayakumar started to set the room on fire, the child escaped through the kitchen door," said Yusuff Nadutharammal, SHO, Kunnamangalam police. The son is an eighth-grade student of Spring Valley School, NIT campus.
Neighbours saw the fire rising from the quarters where Ajayakumar lived and informed the police. They also spotted the runaway child and rushed him to a private hospital in Mukkam.
Kunnamangalam police registered a case for unnatural death and started the inquest procedure.
Ajayakumar also has a daughter who is studying B.Arch at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kottayam.