Indian engineer in Silicon Valley kills five of his family and himself

When the phone rang at 4 am today,Cheriyeri Appu Master,a retired school teacher in Ayyankolli village in Tamil Nadus Nilgiri district bordering Keralas Wayanad.....

When the phone rang at 4 am today,Cheriyeri Appu Master,a retired school teacher in Ayyankolli village in Tamil Nadus Nilgiri district bordering Keralas Wayanad,thought it would be eldest daughter Abha calling from California to fill him with details of their house-warming party. But the call was from the Indian consulate in San Francisco Appu Masters son-in-law Devarajan,a Silicon Valley engineer working with Yahoo!,had allegedly shot dead his two children and three relatives,including a toddler,before turning the gun on himself. Abha with multiple gunshot wounds was the sole survivor,found in a pool of blood outside her home in upmarket Santa Clara.

Reports from Santa Clara said police,alerted by a neighbour,arrived to find five bodies in the house,all shot dead. Devarajan was also found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Theres no way to describe it other than horrific, Lt Phil Cooke of Santa Clara Police was quoted as saying.

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Devarajan had just moved into a rented house with Abha and their two children,Akhil (10) and Ashna (4). The other victims were Abhas brother Ashokan,an HP employee in Bangalore who had moved to the US on deputation recently,his wife Suchitra and their 11-month-old daughter Ahna. They had gone over to Devarajans house for a house-warming dinner.

Investigators were yet to ascertain the motive but said financial issues did not appear to be a factor.

In Ayyankolli,Appu Masters family is devastated. Rajashekharan,a close relative,said: The family cant make out what provoked the killings. Though from a lower middle class family,Devarajan had no financial problem. He was well employed in the IT sector. After an MCA from Pondicherry,he had been recruited by Microsoft. He was with them for eight years before moving to Yahoo!

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