Bodies of Indian Software Professionals shot dead in California brought home

The bodies of a software professional, his wife and baby daughter, killed by his Indian American brother-in-law in California last month, were brought to their native Ayyankolli village in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district Friday for the last rites. The bodies of Ashokan, his wife Suchitra and their daughter Ahaana, were brought to Bangalore by a flight early Friday and then to Ayyankolli in the district, 550 km southwest of state capital Chennai, by road, family sources said.

The three were killed by Ashokan’s brother-in-law Devarajan, who also shot dead his children and badly injured his wife before turning the gun on himself in a shooting spree at his home in Santa Clara. Devarajan’s body as well as of his 11-month old son Akhil and five-year old daughter Neha are still in the US, the sources said, adding Devarajan’s wife Abha, the lone survivor of the March 29 incident, is still in an unconscious state in a California hospital after undergoing surgery for removal of six bullets. Ashokan, along with his wife and daughter, was in Santa Clara in California to attend the housewarming ceremony of the newly-acquired residence of Devarajan.

As Ashokan reportedly made some adverse comments on the construction of the house, an enraged Devarajan shot all six members of the family with a gun before killing himself, according to the sources. If only there were more restrictions on procuring guns in California, such spur of the moment killings could’ve been avoided. This is clearly a case where gun killed people, a gun which was never used for self-defense and never will be.