The deceased were identified as Kaushik Puneesh Sharma, 40, his wife Srilatha, 36, daughter Sriraksha, 11 and son Kaustub, 9, residing in a duplex house in the Vakeel Garden City.

Sriraksha was studying in Class IV and Kaustub in Class III in a private school. Kaushik runs a finance and real estate business in the city.

He killed his family by injecting poison into them before taking his own life, the deputy superintendent of police (Ramanagaram) Ramachandrappa said.

The incident came to light on Friday around 12 noon, when Sharma’s niece Sumega Reddy came to the house. Sharma had reportedly called her around 12 midnight and asked her to come his house by 10.30 am as he needed to hand over a bag containing some valuables.

She reached the house and tried to her uncle but there was no response. When she peeped into the house through a window, she found the children and her aunt lying in the bedroom. She informed the Talaghattapur police who reached the spot and entered the house by breaking open the door.

The police found two letters in the house with one asking for his relatives to be contacted for distribution of his property after his death.

In another letter, he said he was being harassed by a person called Reddy from the Andhra Pradesh police. He mentioned a CCS Hyderabad as well. The police suspects that CCS reference is to the Central Crime Station (CCS), a detective department of the Hyderabad police.

Superintendent of police for the Ramanagaram district, Anupam Agarwal, said the death notes found at the home did not clearly mention any policeman’s name. The SP claimed that the note did not say Sharma was harassed by the police.

“We have registered a case of murder against Sharma for the death of his wife and children.

We have also registered a case of abetment to suicide since he has mentioned Andhra Pradesh policemen. We are investigating the case to know the role of AP policemen, if any, in this case,” Agarwal said.

Meanwhile, the CCS police in Hyderabad said they had registered a case against a private bank for allegedly cheating a person by the name Kaushik.

The CCS said they would need to verify the case to know if the complainant was the same Kaushik who committed suicide. A deputy commissioner of police (CCS, Hyderabad) G Pala Raju clarified there was no case registered against Kaushik with the CCS, Hyderabad.

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