Missing NRI techie's family suspects he was also killed

Hyderabad: The family members of Lakshminivasa Rao , the Indian software programmer who disappeared from his home near Detroit in the US while his wife and two children were found killed, suspect that the crime was committed by some 'outsiders' who may have also killed or kidnapped him.

The US police Monday found Lakshminivasa's wife N Jayalakshmi and her two children 14-year-old Tejasvi and 12-year-old Shivkumar in a pool of blood on the first floor of their residence in Wharton Court, 20 km from Detroit. This followed a call from a relative of the family that he had not heard from the family for several days.

The US federal police have launched a hunt for 42-year-old Lakshminivasa, who had reportedly gone back to India about a fortnight ago. He had lost his job recently.

The police said there were grievous injuries on the head and neck areas of the victims.

Lakshminivasa's relatives in Gandigunta village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, about 400 km from here, are not ready to believe allegations that he came back to India after killing his wife and children.

Some of them, including Lakshminivasa's father N. Koteswara Rao, disappeared Friday amid suspicions that he could be hiding here. Police visited houses of some of his relatives to gather information about the family and his whereabouts.

Koteswara Rao, a retired teacher, and two of his sons were not available when police officials reached their homes to gather details. Some relatives told the police that they had left for Hyderabad Wednesday and from there to Detroit. However, there is suspicion that Koteswara Rao and others could still be in Hyderabad to meet Lakshminivasa, who is reportedly hiding here.

"My brother could not have committed this crime. He had no financial difficulties," Sriramachandra Varaprasad, who is headmaster of a government-run school in Krishna district, told local reporters.

He suspects that those who killed Jayalakshmi and her two children, could have also kidnapped and killed his brother. "Otherwise, he would have definitely contacted us," he said.

"He had a cordial marital life and there is no reason why he should murder his wife, who was also his cousin," he said.

Jayalakshmi was the daughter of Koteswara Rao's sister and she grew up in her uncle's house. Family members said Koteswara Rao had adopted her after the death of her mother and married her off to his youngest son.

Jalakshmi's family, which lives in a small hamlet Khandrika in the same district, was shocked to hear the news on Diwali. Her sister Kolusu Venkateswaramma said she did not believe Lakshminivasa's family members when they broke the news.

Youngest of the six sons of Koteswara Rao, Lakshminivasa, a commerce graduate, moved to the US about 18 years ago. He did his masters in computer sciences in the US.

He took his wife and children to the US in 2001. His relatives said the family used to visit them occasionally. They last visited India in 2006 when Jayalakshmi's father died.