New Delhi, July 18: A Delhi businessman shot his wife and threw his two children from the balcony of their seventh-floor house early this morning, allegedly under the pressure of debt.

This is the second such incident in the capital this month.

Police were told at 6.15 am today that 32-year-old Navin Ahuja had shot his wife Meenu, 30, and thrown his two children off the balcony of their flat in Jagran Apartments in Dwarka, on the outskirts of Delhi.

Ahuja, who owns a sweet shop in southwest Delhi, first shot his wife and then killed eight-year-old Manav and six-year-old Manavi, while they were asleep. Meenu sustained a bullet injury on her head and is in the Apollo Hospital’s intensive care unit. Ahuja’s mother and sister were in the house at the time.

The flat has two balconies on either side and the police said the two children were thrown from different balconies. They died instantly. Police officers at the spot said Ahuja also appeared to have strangled the children.

The police have seized the revolver Ahuja had procured illegally a few days ago.

Ahuja told the police that he was under a debt of Rs 50-60 lakh, which his father had incurred while dabbling in chit funds. Navin said he had the responsibility of paying back the debts after his father passed away, but was finding it difficult to do so.

The family had been living in Gautam Nagar in south Delhi, close to AIIMS, till a few days before the murders. They sold their house and rented the Dwarka flat to help repay the loans. The police said Ahuja was expecting Rs 11 lakh from the sale of the house.

On July 9, Raj Kumar Khandelwal of Bihar killed his wife and three daughters aged between three and seven ? in a hotel room in the Lahori Gate area of Delhi ? unable to bear the pressure of repaying a Rs 13-lakh loan he had taken from Canara Bank to overcome business losses.

Khandelwal had told police that he had also planned to kill himself but lost his nerve despite preparing a suicide note. The businessman was arrested on murder charges after investigations revealed he had been planning the killings.