Engineering Student Kills Both Parents For Being Told To Quit Course After Repeated Failures

Nagpur: Incidents of family putting too much pressure on students and driving them to suicide are not uncommon in India.

Recently, a student took the other extreme route – killing his parents.

Third-year engineering student Utkarsh Dhakhole of Nagpur, who flunked the exams thrice, was asked by his parents to quit the course.

Refusing to accept their advice, Utkarsh allegedly killed his parents at their residence in Nagpur’s Kapil Nagar area on December 26.

However, the incident came to light on New Year’s Day after neighbours got a foul smell, police said.

Utkarsh was arrested after the decomposed bodies of his parents – identified as Liladhar Dhakhole and Aruna Dhakhole, both 55 – were discovered.

He confessed to the crime during interrogation, informed DCP (Zone V) Niketan Kadam.

“Utkarsh allegedly strangled his mother, a teacher, around noon on December 26 and later stabbed his father, a technician at a power plant and social worker, to death when he returned home around 5 pm. He then left the bodies there,” the official said.

Police said the motive appeared to be a dispute over the son’s academic performance.

“Utkarsh failed to clear several subjects during his engineering course. His parents, therefore, wanted him to quit engineering and choose some other course. However, he was against their suggestion,” Kadam said.

After killing his parents, Utkarsh took his sister, who is a college-going student and was unaware of the murders, to their uncle’s residence. He told his relatives that his parents had gone to Bengaluru to participate in a meditation programme for a few days.

It wasn’t long that the double murder was discovered, and he was subsequently arrested.