Did decade-old differences trigger shootings?

Devarajan Raghavan, alias Devan Kalathat had some tiff with his wife’s brother Ashok about a decade ago, said his elder brother Premarajan, who looks after the family’s agricultural activities at Kappala. Premarajan now wonders if that triggered the shootings.

Devarajan allegedly killed himself after shooting dead five family members and critically injuring his wife Abha in Santa Clara. “He is a soft-spoken person. We still can’t believe he wielded the gun and snuffed out six lives. We are told his wife Abha is critical and doctors have removed six bullets from her body,” Premarajan said.

Devarajan had last spoken to his brother-in-law Ravindran (elder sister Thangamani’s husband) on Saturday. “He appeared normal then and inquired about my brother-in-law’s welfare and said he would call later as he was busy with office work,” Premarajan said. He said it was Devarajan who encouraged Ashok (Abha’s brother) to take up software about 10 years ago. Ashok was a civil engineer and Devarajan persuaded him to take up software for better prospects.

“However, some differences cropped up. Ashok had accused Devarajan of not trying hard to find him a job. That was almost a decade ago and we don’t know if that triggered the wild reaction,” he said.

Premarajan said they come from an agrarian family and his late father, Raghavan, had made it clear that only of his six children who scored good marks would be allowed to pursue higher education. “Devarajan always stood first in class at the government school in Erumad. He did his BSc Physics from St Mary’s College in Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad. He also won a cash prize as the best student there. He then  joined St Thomas College, Trichur, for his MSc,” he said. Bud he left it in his second year to pursue MCA from Pondi-cherry Engineering College.

He joined PCL Bangalore, which sent him to Poland for a year-long training. He resigned from PCL when he got offers from Canada and Australia. He worked for a year in Canada. He married Abha during a visit to India from Canada. When legal hassles surfaced in getting visa for his wife, he quit his job in Canada.

He then got an offer from Microsoft where he worked for over 12 years, rising to the level of manager. “About one-and- a-half years ago he shifted to Yahoo. He left India as Devarajan Raghavan, but changed his name to Devan Kalathat as he said he wanted to flaunt the family’s surname. He visited us last in July 2007 and we expected him to come down this July,” he said.

He is the only family member to have settled abroad. “We don’t have a computer. The revenue inspector took us to the revenue divisional officer to record our statements. We want the government to send us Devarajan and his two children’s bodies. We approached Union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi and we expect the bodies to arrive on Saturday,” Premarajan said.