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Bad debts drive American-Indian to kill family, shoot self

Natarajan Ramachandran, who allegedly defrauded area banks, committed suicide after slaying his wife, daughter and son, in Fairfax country, near Washington.

The daughter, Reha Ramachandran (11) was injured in Sunday's shoot-out at her home and died in a hospital last night. Others -- Natarajan Ramachandran (40), his wife Kalpana (36) and son Raj (7) -- were found dead in the house. They all died of gunshots.

According to authorities, Natarajan Ramachandran had written about two million dollars in bad cheques in attempts to cover up mounting debts totalling about ten million dollars, some of which he is stated to have incurred in gambling losses.

He had been under investigation and had been interviewed several times by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Ramachandran was writing cheques on several bank accounts, all with insufficient funds, says The Washington Post quoting authorities. ''Our case concluded at the time he killed himself and will subsequently be closed," said John Barrett, special agent in charge of the criminal division in the FBI's Washington office.

The daily quoted authorities as having said that Ramachandran's business partner, Nagaraja Thyagarajan, became aware of his financial problems and went to his house at 12:45 hours on Monday to discuss the matter.

When he knocked the door, Reha, shaken, disoriented and bleeding, opened the door.

Reha is understood to have told the police that after being shot, she somehow thought it was all ''all just a bad dream.'' She said she stumbled from the master bedroom where Ramachandran had gathered the family, into another room and felt asleep until she was aroused by Thyagrajan's knock.

Ramachandran left a note detailing his financial problems. His wife was not aware of these difficulties, sources say.

He worked for his own finance company, which he founded, with Thyagarajan. They together paid 252,000 dollars in cash for the office accommodation.

Ramachandran and his wife bought their home last year for 585,000 dollars with a mortgage of 438,00 dollars.

UNI

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