In a bizarre sequence of events, a doctor suffering from terminal cancer shot and killed his six-year-old daughter and then shot himself because he feared for her future.
Dr Lakhan Singh took the extreme step on Friday in Ferozabad, about 325 km from here.
Singh, a paediatrician, had been suffering from cancer for the past few months and knew he didn’t have much time to live. Recently he had suffered bouts of depression, said sources.
The incident took place in their house. The girl died on the spot and, at the time of going to press, Singh was battling for his life at a hospital in Agra.
According to the police, Singh used to treat patients in a clinic at Ferozabad. He was suffering from mouth cancer and doctors had told him it was incurable.
His wife Archana said she heard gun fire while she was making breakfast in the kitchen. She rushed to the bedroom to find her daughter and husband lying in a pool of blood. Both were taken to hospital. Their daughter was declared brought dead.
A note, purportedly written by Singh, was later recovered from his house. In it he claimed to be worried for his daughter’s future and, using this reasoning, took her life.
“I am concerned about my daughter's future...I know she would not get the care and attention that she is receiving now after my death...so her life too will come to an end today,” the sources quoted the note as saying.
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