82-year-old kills disabled son, lies next to body for 4 days

On Friday morning, after neighbours complained of foul smell emanating from the flat, police broke in and found the octogenarian lying unconscious next to his dead son.

Viswanathan, who retired as stenographer from a central government office, was taking care of his 44-year-old son, Venkatraman aka Ramesh for the past fifteen years after his wife passed away.

Police said that he decided to kill his son fearing no one would take care of him after his death. “Viswanathan had been suffering from old age-related health issues and was also taking care of his son, who had physical and mental disability. The octogenarian believed that no one would take care of his son after his death,” a police officer said.

On Monday, a day after Deepavali, Viswanathan gave Venkat food laced with a large dose of sleeping pills and later consumed the pills. While his son died, Viswanathan didn’t and was in bed alongside the decomposed body of his son when police entered their apartment.

After neighbours complained, a team from the Teynampet police station rushed to the spot and found Venkatesan’s decomposed body and Viswanathan lying unconscious near him. While Viswanathan has been shifted to hospital, his son’s body has been sent for post-mortem, police said. Police said that they have contacted Viswanathan’s brother and informed him about the developments.

In a similar incident in June last year, a man residing in Manickam Nagar in Tiruvotriyur, killed his mentally-ill son by slashing the latter’s neck with a knife fearing that nobody would take care of the youth. In another incident reported in 2017, an auto rickshaw driver from Koyambedu strangulated his teenaged mentally unstable daughter after he could not watch her suffering.