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1.07.2008

man kills family in apartment fire

This is a crazy story from last week out of Oak Forest, Illinois... According to prosecutors, a man set a fire that killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and young grandson because he was upset over his daughter's marriage: Family dispute at heart of Oak Forest apartment fire, prosecutors say.

Subhash Chander, who is originally from India, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of homicide of an unborn child and one count of aggravated arson. He was apparently upset with his daughter Monika Rani and son-in-law Rajesh Kumar because they married without his consent, and he considered Kumar to be from a lower caste than his daughter. That's crazy.

The fire also spread to many of the surrounding units in the apartment complex, displacing its residents—many of whom are newly arrived, working-class immigrants from India. Now many of them have nowhere to go.

Goodness. I've heard of many family disputes revolving around parents who disapprove of their kids' marriages... but none of them have ever resulted in setting one's family on fire. Crazy.