WASHINGTON: A 57-year-old Indian man has been charged with killing his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and grandson by setting afire their apartment in the US state of Illinois because he was upset over her marrying a man from a "lower caste".
Subhash Chander faces three counts of first-degree murder, one count of homicide of an unborn child and one count of aggravated arson, and was denied bail by Judge Martin E. McDonough.
Monika Rani, 22, Rajesh Kumar, 36, and their son, Vansh, 3 were killed in the weekend blaze. Rani was about five months pregnant, authorities said.
Chander told police that he was upset with his daughter and son-in-law because they married without his consent and he considered Kumar to be from a "lower caste", First Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan was quoted as saying by media here.
But Chander's sister Kamla Devi said it was not true. She said the family accepted the marriage and that the caste system was not a factor to the family at all.
She claimed it was something that "people have brought up in the US since the family has immigrated from India".
On the night of the fire, Chander went to a gas station to buy gas for his son, but decided to give it to his daughter instead. After arriving at her door, he said, Kumar told him that it was late and asked him to leave.
He told police that Kumar started to push him and some of the gas from the container in his hand spilled onto the carpet just inside the door. Chander told police that he became "upset and angry" and pulled a lighter from his pocket and set the carpet on fire.
