Dad sobs as wife’s final moments heard before he strangled her & their 2 kids as bodycam shows him with knife to throat
A KILLER dad sobbed today as his wife’s final moments were heard before he strangled her and their two children.
Anju Asok, 35, Jeeva Saju, six, and Janvi Saju, four, were discovered at the home in Kettering with serious injuries.
Saju Chelavalel, 52, pleaded guilty to three counts of murder despite feigning ignorance over their deaths.
He said previously: “I don’t know what happened to the children, but I plead guilty.”
Chelavalel has now been jailed for life with a minimum of 40 years.
Northampton Crown Court was told Chelavalel wrongly believed his wife had been unfaithful to him.
On December 15, he made a “toxic” blend of chocolate and pills which he hoped would send his children to sleep.
Chelavalel sobbed today as a chilling audio recording was played where Anju could be heard coughing as he children spoke nearby.
The blender he used to mix the sleeping drought for Jeeva and Janvi could also be heard.
Chelavalel first murdered Anju and left her body on the floor of a bedroom before strangling their two children.
Their bodies were discovered next to to each other on a double bed in a different room.
Police bodycam released after today’s sentencing showed Chelavalel urging officers to shoot him as he held a knife to his throat.
He was Tasered before police rushed into the home, where the dad had left instructions to cremate him and his family in India, to arrest him.
Sentencing, High Court judge Mr Justice Pepperall told Chelavalel his actions had been brutal and “extraordinarily selfish”.
The judge said both his children would have been “terrified and deeply traumatised” after hearing their mum’s murder.
He said both kids could have been brought up by other relatives, but added: “Fuelled by alcohol, wallowing in self-pity, engulfed in your resentment at your wife’s perceived infidelity, you instead chose to snuff out their young and precious lives.”
Detective Inspector Simon Barnes said the murdered children had attended Kettering Park Infant Academy.
He added: “The staff at the school described the children as kind, caring, gentle, playful, polite and smiley. They are much missed.
“How do you explain to children as young as four that the friends they were playing with only days before are no longer with us? You shouldn’t have to. No one should.
“As an adult, detective and father, I cannot comprehend how Saju Chelavalel could do this and don’t think I ever will.
“There is no amount of time behind bars that will ever be enough for what he did. His primary role as a husband and a father was to protect his family from harm.”