Tirupati, April 23 : An entire family of five lost their lives in a span of a few hours in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. A man killed his wife and mother and later died by suicide by placing his head on a railway track. His two children, who tried to save him, were also crushed to death under the same train.

The shocking incident occurred at Venkatakrishna Palem panchayat in Narayanavanam mandal on Wednesday.

Police shared the details of the incidents on Thursday. A middle-aged man, identified as Mohan, killed his wife and mother by strangulating them with a piece of cloth at his house at Chakali Veedhi in Venkatakrishna Palem.

Mohanâ??s wife Harita (33) used to run a tailoring shop and a beauty parlour while Mohan's mother Chandrakala (65) was a housewife.

After killing the two women, Mohan picked up his son Kaushik (14) and daughter Harini (12) from their school in Puttur. He told the teacher that their grandfather had passed away.

The killings came to light when Haritaâ??s brother Balakrishna went to the house. Balakrishna was helping Mohan in running a cement shop at Narayanavanam.

Mohan had left the shop to bring lunch for his brother-in-law. When Mohan did not return after a long time and his mobile phone was also switched off, Balakrishna went to the house to check on him but was shocked to see Harita and Chandrakala lying dead.

Balakrishna alerted the police, which formed special teams to trace Mohan. The teams searched him at Puttur, Nagari and other places in the district.

Police investigations revealed that after picking up his children on his motorcycle, Mohan took them around in Chittoor and Tirupati districts and around 7.15 P.M. reached Vepagunta railway station in Puttur mandal. After parking his vehicle, he along with the children went to the railway track. He then placed his head on the railway track to die by suicide under an approaching train.

Shocked over this, the children tried to pull him away but all of them were crushed under the Egmore-Kacheguda Express running with a speed of 100 km per hour. The loco pilot informed Puttur station master that three persons died on the railway track.

The killing of the two women by Mohan and his suicide remain a mystery. Preliminary investigation by police revealed that Mohan had no financial problems and he was also mentally sound. As he owed some money to his sister, he had reportedly given cash to a relative on Wednesday morning to hand over the same to her.

Narayanavanam police have registered a case and taken up an investigation. Railway police registered a separate case about the death of Mohan and his two children on railway track.

/IANS