Too much of a burden
Police: Father was saddled with financial woes and school fees not paid for months
Financial woes may have been behind the deaths of three children and their father.
SUNGAI PETANI: Financial woes could be among the reasons behind the tragic deaths of three children and their father here.
Kedah CID chief Senior Asst Comm Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said K. Sivarau was saddled with debts, with the house rental and children’s school fees which had not been paid for several months.
A car was repossessed as its monthly instalments were not paid.
“K. Sivarau’s debts could be quite high,” said Kuala Muda district police chief OCPD Asst Comm Saifi Abdul Hamid.
“It is believed to be among the main contributing factors.
“The wife has passed away, so have his children. We are still investigating,” he said, declining to reveal more yesterday.
Family members of Sivarau, 48, were called in to have their statements recorded by the police after his funeral. The police interviewed Sivarau’s mother-in-law and the kindergarten teacher of his two children for about two hours and 40 minutes respectively.
CID chief DSP Wan Azharuddin Wan Ismail said this was part of their investigation process.
Earlier, SAC Mior Farid said the three children might have been smothered with pillows before the father hanged himself.
He added the actual cause of death could only be confirmed after laboratory analysis.
Sivarau’s younger brother K. Loagansrau, 38, said he did not believe that his brother was facing financial problems.
“I met him a month ago at my sister’s house nearby, and he looked normal. I’m not sure about his source of income.
“However, they have been staying at the rented house for about six years.
“We are very sad as his wife just died 20 days ago. Now, the whole family is gone,” he said yesterday.
S. Punita, 60, Sivarau’s mother-inlaw, was too distraught to speak to reporters and had to be comforted by Loagansrau.
Sivarau was found hanged in the bedroom at about 2pm on Monday while his two sons – S. Sashvin Rau, six, and S. Raghu Ram Rau, five, and eight-year-old daughter S. Yakima Sri – were found dead in the same room.
On Monday, Punita told police that she last spoke to the four during dinner on Sunday before they went upstairs to bed.
She woke up suddenly when she heard her grandchildren screaming.
She said Sivarau came down and told her that they were having a nightmare.
She woke up at 8am and did household chores till 1.30pm before finding their bodies upstairs.
Yesterday, about 100 family members and friends came to pay their last respects at the house in Perdana Height.
The funeral ceremony started with prayers at 11am. The bodies were later buried at the Hindu cemetery near the Sri Subramaniam Kuil in Jalan Badlishah here.