In a gruesome incident a 35-year-old man strangulated his two children before committing suicide by hanging at his house at the wee hours on Wednesday.

The sensational incident has taken place at Indkata village in Ashantalia panchayat under Chakradharpur thana area in West Singhbhum district about 85 kms away from here, triggering shock wave in the region.

Those killed were 12-year-old boy Sangam Mahto and nine-years-old girl Manshi Mahto, both children of Mukesh Mahto.

The police have recovered all the three bodies and sent them to the Chaibasa Sadar Hospital for postmortem having registered cases of murder and suicide on the statement made by Sanju Mahto, widow of Mukesh Mahto.

According to sources, the family of Mukesh Mahto were in deep slumber in the courtyard of their house at the intervening night of Wednesday when the assailant father strangulated the children before killing self.

OC, Chakradharpur thana, Chandrashekhar Kumar said at about 11 pm on Tuesday, Mukesh informed his father-in-law Om Prakash Mahto over cellphone that he would kill his children in the night, asking himn to take his daughter Sanju back his home.

Getting the information, Om Prakash who resides at Chakradharpur town, about 10 kms away from Indkata, got frightened.

"Soon after getting the threat call, a nervous Om Prakash contacted Mukesh's elder brother who resides at Indkata requested him to visit Mukesh's house. The elder brother Paritosh sent his son to his uncle's house immediately, but on reaching there he found all the four members of the family, including Mukesh were in deep slumber and reported this to his father that there was nothing unusual. But in the morning, Sanju was found wailing over the bodied of her children inside the house where Mukesh was also found hanging from the ceiling fan, " said Chandrashekhar while talking to The Telegraph Online.

The OC who had visited the spot and talked to Sanju said that the assailant father had taken his children from the courtyard in their sleep and killed them one after another by strangulating them. He pointed out Mukesh committed suicide after killing the children.

The OC said Mukesh was alcoholic and used to quarrel with his wife regularly. He said last night also there was a serious quarrel between the two after Sanju had objected to his drinking habit, adding that there is no other apparent reason behind Mukesh,s such barbaric step.