JOIN USIn a tragic incident, a debt-ridden businessman, living in upmarket Judges Bungalow area of Ahmedabad, on Tuesday morning shot dead his wife and two daughters while they were sleeping.
The incident, police said, occurred over a domestic dispute over sending one of their daughters to Australia for higher studies.
Dharmesh Shah (50) owns a construction business and is said to be under a debt of Rs 15 crore.
Unaware of Shah's financial situation, his family had a verbal altercation with him late on Monday night over the funding of Rs 70 lakh for their elder daughter to pursue studies abroad.
"Shah first shot his wife Amiben with his licensed pistol while the daughters were asleep. He then killed both his daughters Heli (24) and Khushi (18) with a 12-bore gun. While he fired one round at his wife, he pumped in two rounds each into his daughters," Assistant Commissioner of police S N Zala said.
The police said that soon after killing his family members, Shah called up an engineer in his firm and his relatives to tell him about his intention of committing suicide.
However, he did not do so and instead called up the police control room and surrendered before the police when they arrived at his residence.
An investigation revealed that Shah ran a firm with a turnover of Rs 50 crore and employed about 70 people directly. His firm is said to have been running losses for the last five years.
"We have begun scientific investigations at the scene of crime and are also interrogating Shah for more details about the incident," Dr K L N Rao, DCP, Ahmedabad, said.
Shah has been arrested for murder.