Dubai, July 17 (IANS): Dubai police have confirmed that the deaths of an Indian film producer and his wife and daughter was a case of murder-cum-suicide, a step taken due to their financial woes, a media report said Thursday.
The decomposed bodies of Malayalam film producer and businessman Santhosh Kumar, his wife Manju and their daughter Gouri, were found Tuesday under mysterious circumstances in their flat in Dubai after Kumar's cousin informed the police that they were not responding to his phone calls.
Dubai police Wednesday said that the couple resorted to the extreme step due to financial problems, Khaleej Times reported.
Manju was found with both her wrists cut, while Kumar had stab injuries on various parts of his body.
Police said their child Gouri, a fourth grade student, had been smothered to death with a pillow.
The forensic evidence at the site ruled out the possibility of any foul play by an outsider, police said.
Kumar also had some cases registered against him in Dubai.
Kumar, who owns production company Souparnika Films in the south Indian state of Kerala, had shifted to Dubai in 2009.
He had co-produced the hit Malayalam movie "Madambi" and re-makes of classic hits like "Neelathaamara" and "Rathinirvedham".
However, Kumar’s film business went bust when another movie, "Chattkkari", in which he had invested money, bombed at the box office, the report said.
Subsequently, Santhosh Kumar's trading business in Dubai suffered losses and a case was filed against him for not paying salaries to his employees for over a year.
A dud cheque case was also registered against him.
Police also found a letter written by Kumar in which he mentioned the places where the family’s passports had been kept so that they could be used to repatriate their bodies, a source said.
However, the police have recovered only Gouri’s passport.