Indian suspected of setting sons on fire in US

His two sons, Om(4) and Vishv(7) were at the hospital in drug-induced comas after being severely burned, authorities said.

Their mother Nisha Patel has not been allowed to see her sons, friends told the newspaper.

“I’m just tired of all this. I’m just praying they’re OK,” she told a reporter.

Authorities suspect Kaushik Patel set fire to the couple’s two sons on Sunday night at their home in Glendale Heights in Chicago’s western suburbs.

Kaushik Patel has not been arrested or charged yet in the case, said DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett.

“Obviously, everybody’s praying for these kids,” Birkett said.

Patel’s sister-in-law Kamini Patel told the Tribune on Tuesday that he described the incident as a botched suicide involving him and his two sons.

Patel moved to the Chicago area from Gujarat in 1992, and later married and brought his wife to the country, Kamini said.

The couple’s marriage had been troubled, she added.

Patel worked in the etching department at a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, according to the company, Mega Circuit.

Kamini Patel told the newspaper that when Patel arrived at her home on Sunday night with the badly burned boys, his face was “black with smoke”.

Police have said the boys’ mother was not home when the incident occurred.

Kamini told the newspaper that a distraught Kaushik Patel called her husband Sunday night, and her husbandtold his brother to drive to their home in Hanover Park.

He arrived a few minutes later with the burned children strapped into their car seats, she said. The boys’ faces, chests and knees were burned, and the younger child was naked except for a blanket.

The children were shaking, she said.

“I said, ‘It’s OK, I’m with you.’ It was like taking care of a baby,” she said. “The little one said he needed water.”

Her husband called the emergency dispatcher and the three burn victims were rushed to the hospital.

The boys remain in critical condition at the hospital, authorities said.

“Every minute they’re alive is an improvement,” Schar said.