Man Kills Wife, 13-Month-Old Baby Before Hanging Self Following Domestic Dispute

In a double murder-suicide incident, a 33-year-old man has killed his wife and 13-month-old son before taking his own life. Police said he took the extreme step following a domestic dispute.

Giriraj Meena was a government school teacher in Bundi town, located in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. His wife, Smita, was a teacher in the city of Jaipur, located nearly 130 miles north of Bundi. Due to the government-imposed COVID-19 lockdown, Giriraj was staying with his wife and child in Jaipur, police said Saturday.

"Here, the father-in-law of Giriraj came to take his daughter and her son to his home for some days. Giriraj was objecting to it. It led to an altercation between the two since the past two days," police said, the Times of India reported.

On Thursday, the feud between the husband and wife escalated when Smita insisted that she wanted to go with her father. The couple got into a verbal spat.

"It appears that by evening, Giriraj lost his temper and first strangulated his wife. He thereafter slit the neck of his 13-month-old son. To repent, he hanged himself from the ceiling fan," police told local media.

Police have ruled out the involvement of a fourth person in the case.

In another recent incident, a mother killed her 3-year-old daughter before ending her own life. The woman's husband was found dead in a forest in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The killings took place after a heated argument over some issue, police said.

In a suicide note retrieved by police, the woman blamed the landlord of their rented house for the deaths. Local media reported that the man sent a selfie with a rope around his neck to his relatives before killing himself.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.