HYDERABAD: Allegedly scared over threats from his business partners, an arrack contractor shot himself dead after killing his son and leaving daughter and wife seriously injured at Ghatkesar on Friday night.

While the contractor V. Kumar Goud, 40, and his son Manjunath, 14, died on the spot, his wife Rajeshwari, 32, and daughter, Nikhita, 10, who sustained bullet wounds, are battling for their lives at a corporate hospital. Their condition was stated to be critical.

The injured woman, Rajeshwari, told The Hindu from her hospital bed that she and her husband had decided to end their lives because of frequent threat calls from her husband's business partner - Balraj Goud - and his brother Venkatesh Goud. The couple started off in a car from their house in Ramnagar at midnight. They carried their children who were fast asleep.

Licensed weapon

Goud stopped the car at Ghanapuram village near Ghatkesar on city fringes around 1 a.m. and shot at his son, daughter and wife with a revolver. The weapon was a licensed one. Later, he shot himself in the neck.

Rajeshwari, who sustained bullet injuries on her left forearm and back, rang up her father P. Narsimhulu. The shocked relatives rushed to the spot and brought them to hospital. However, Kumar and Manjunath were dead by then.

In a suicide note purportedly written by Kumar, he stated that they were willingly ending their lives. He pleaded that the bodies should be cremated at one place and `ghats' constructed.

Police said Kumar's partners were in liquor business and were residents of Kannojiguda village. Kumar hailed from the same mandal. During the recently held village panchayat elections, Kumar's mother-in-law contested for sarpanch post against a candidate supported by the partners.

Strained relations

This political development reportedly strained their relations. Kumar split with Venkatesh after the latter allegedly assaulted his father-in-law on the day of counting of votes. "According to Rajeshwari, Venkatesh had been threatening Kumar to either come back to him or face death since her husband was in the know of crucial accounts of the liquor business," the police said.

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