Depressed with son's illness, property dealer kills family, self

Depressed over the condition of his mentally retarded son, a well-to-do Kapurthala property dealer shot dead three members of his family before committing suicide, police said Wednesday.

Avtar Singh (43) ended his life early Wednesday in his house after killing his wife Roopinder (40), son Gaurav Prateek (13) and daughter Amanat (8).

The incident took place around 6 a.m. Avtar used his licensed .12-bore rifle to eliminate his family and himself.

Police said that after killing his wife and children, Avtar called up his cousin Karamjit and told him that he had killed his family and was going to take his own life. He also called up his brother-in-law Sukhraj and told him the same thing.

Both rushed to his house and had to scale the wall to get inside. They found the family lying in a pool of blood inside a bedroom.

The police were called immediately.

Avtar was related to former Punjab finance minister Upinderjit Kaur.

Kapurthala district police chief Inderbir Singh said investigations were on.