INDIAN FATHER IN US KILLS PREGNANT DAUGHTER, HER FAMILY

CHICAGO — A man set a fire last weekend that killed his pregnant daughter, his son-in-law and his 3-year-old grandson, prosecutors say, because he disapproved of his daughter’s marriage. The man, Subhash Chander, who lives in Oak Forest, a suburb south of here, told investigators that he was upset with his daughter, Monika Rani, and her husband, Rajesh Kumar, for what he saw as “a cultural slight,” said Robert J. Milan, the first assistant state’s attorney of Cook County. Chander said that the couple had married without his consent and that Kumar was from a lower caste in India than Rani’s family, Milan said.

Chander, 57, was held without bail on Wednesday, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated arson and intentional homicide of an unborn child. Rani, 22, was five months pregnant with the couple’s second child. A defense lawyer assigned to Chander’s case did not respond to a telephone message. On Saturday night, firefighters were called to a blaze that was swiftly consuming an apartment complex where more than 70 people were inside. People raced down stairs, and others jumped from balcony windows. Remarkably, the authorities said, most escaped without serious injuries.
The authorities said the fire started outside the door of Apartment 209, where Rani, Kumar and their son, Vansh Kumar, 3, lived. A witness told the police that just after the fire started he saw a man matching Chander’s description in the hallway smelling of gasoline and carrying a plastic container. An attendant at a gasoline station told the police that Chander had bought a plastic container of gasoline at his station two hours before the fire. Not long after the fire, the police found the container in the garbage bin outside Chander’s apartment building, just across the street from his daughter’s building.
Chander acknowledged setting the fire, the authorities said, but said it had started during an unexpected confrontation with his family members. Chander told the police that his son-in-law had pushed him, leading him to spill the gasoline, which he had bought for a relative, Milan said. Chander said he grew angry, pulled out his lighter and set the apartment on fire, Milan added. Then, Chander said, he left, threw away the container and went home, Milan said, adding that he did not call the police, firefighters or his daughter.