Techie's depressed wife pushes son into sump, jumps into it

The wife of an IT professional pushed her six-year-old son into the water sump of her house in HSR Layout on Tuesday night, before herself jumping into it. Both died.

The woman, Lakshmi Rao, 28, was overly protective of her son, Chinmayi Sai Kiran, and unduly concerned about his health. She feared his health would worsen, and hence possibly took the extreme step out of despair, her cousin said.

Lakshmi, whose husband P Subba Rao is a software engineer, had been depressed about the unstable health of her son. She herself was  not in the best of health.

Police suspect that she first pushed her son into the water sump before herself jumping into it.

The incident came to light on Wednesday morning when Subba Rao woke up and was stunned to find a one-line note by Lakshmi, in which she reportedly asked him to check for their bodies in their sump. Rao’s worst fears came true when he did so.

The bodies were later taken to Victoria Hospital for post-mortem.

A source said Kiran had been diagnosed with having piles and recently underwent an operation at a private hospital. Lakshmi was always concerned about his health and would keep fretting about it, the source added.

Her cousin, Ramakrishna, said that even if Kiran had mild fever, Lakshmi would lose her sleep and be frantic with worry. “Even if something trivial happened to him, she would blow it out of proportion. She used to take care of her son in the most protective manner.”

Kiran’s health had improved of late and he had begun attending school, but Lakshmi remained concerned. He was a normal child and very jovial. “But it seems Lakshmi was worried about what would happen to him next and might have taken this extreme step out of despair,” he added.

The family lived in Sector 2 in HSR Layout. Lakshmi had married Subba Rao eight years ago. Both hailed from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Before moving to Bangalore, the family lived in the United Kingdom where Subba Rao worked for an IT major.

The HSR Layout police have registered a case of murder against Lakshmi for killing her son and a case of unnatural death for her suicide.