Indian-origin man commits murder-suicide in Sydney river

An Indian man threw his daughter from a boat and then jumped into the river in a chilling murder-suicide case, in Australia.

Two bodies were found in the Parramatta River in Sydney last Saturday, leading the investigators to a suicide note that led the authorities to classify the incident as a deliberate murder suicide. Cops were called when witnesses told the police that a man was seen floating in the water. The same man was seen earlier in a boat with a child. The man was identified as 47-year-old Maulik Dhandhukia, an Indian-origin man living in Australia with his family. It is believed that Dhandhukia threw her child first from the boat and then jumped into the river. Neither of them knew how to swim. As the father rented the boat, he was given a life jacket for himself and for his child. They apparently wore those jackets initially but discarded them later. Police said they found a suicide note on the boat after Dhadhukia's body was found. On Saturday evening, the body of the six-year-old girl was recovered from the riverbed. Local officials told the police that the man hired a boat at least twice before -- once with a woman and child, possibly his family. This was his third time on a boat as he brought his daughter. Just weeks before the tragedy, Dhandhukia had written publicly about living with chronic neck pain stemming from a gym injury sustained in 2005. In a social media post, he said the injury had affected much of his life. “To summarise, maybe 70 per cent to 90 per cent of the problems that I faced in my life were due to this neck pain,” he wrote. Police said Dhandhukia was not known to police, and there were no apprehended violence orders in place. Dhandhukia worked as an analyst in application support for the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and had previously held roles in the technology sector in both Australia and India. Family members started a fundraiser for Pritiben Dhadhukia, the wife seeking financial help for immediate expenses.