Bodies of California shooting victims brought home

A sombre mood prevailed in the sleepy village of Ayyankolli in Nilgiris district as
bodies of three of the victims of a shooting rampage by an Indian engineer in California, in which five people were killed, were brought home on Friday for final rites.

The bodies of software professional Ashokan, his wife Suchitra and their daughter Akhila, who fell to the bullets, were brought to Bangalore by a flight early on Friday and then taken to Ayyankolli, 105-km from here, by road, family sources said.

The bodies of Devaraj (42), who went on with the shooting spree before killing himself, his 11-month old son Akhil and five-year old daughter Sneha were still in California, the
sources said. His wife Abha (28), the lone survivor of the "horrific" incident, was still in an unconscious state in a California hospital after undergoing surgery for removal of six bullets.

Ashokan along with his wife Suchitra and daughter Akhila were in in Santa Clara in California to attend the housewarming ceremony of his sister Abha on the night of March 29.

As Ashokan reportedly made some adverse comments on the construction of the house, an enraged Devaraj, Abha's husband, shot all members of the family with a gun before killing himself.

Devaraj's 11-month-old son Akhil and daughter Sneha (5) also fell to the bullets.