Heartbroken mother Pritiben Dhandhukia wept over the coffins of her husband and six-year-old daughter Devarshi during a joint funeral held days after the sh-ocking tr-agedy on Sydney’s Parramatta River
Murder-suicide father Maulik Dhandhukia – who drowned his six-year-old daughter and took his own life – is remembered as a ‘kind and gentle soul’ at joint funeral
A man and his six-year-old daughter have been laid to rest at a joint funeral service, six days after he drowned her and killed himself in a horrific murder-suicide.
Maulik Dhandhukia, 47, rented a boat near Concord in Sydney‘s inner west on Saturday morning with the intention of throwing himself and his only child, Devarshi, overboard.
His body was found floating in the Parramatta River just before midday.
Police spent seven hours searching for the girl in the hope she might be found alive, but emergency services pulled her body from the river about 5.30pm.
A funeral service was held for the father and daughter at Castlebrook Memorial Park in Rouse Hill early on Friday morning.
Dhandhukia’s wife, Pritiben, cried loudly throughout the service and appeared distraught as she approached the open caskets of her husband and daughter.
The family are Indian nationals, and the service was delivered in their native language, but Pritiben could be heard saying ‘why’ as she leaned over her daughter’s coffin.
In the funeral notice, Dhandhukia was remembered as a ‘kind and gentle soul who will forever remain in our hearts’. There was no mention of the murder-suicide.
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Pictured: The funeral notice for Maulik Dhandhukia and his daughter, Devarshi – who he killed on Saturday
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Pritiben Dhandhukia can be seen crying over her husband and daughter’s bodies at a joint funeral service
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The father rented a boat multiple times in the week leading up to the murder-suicide, including one occasion with his wife (Emergency services at Parramatta River are pictured)
The funeral notice read: ‘Remembering late Maulik Dhandhukia … Also remembering late, loving and charming Devarshi Dhandhukia, daughter of Priti Dhandhukia and late Maulik Dhandhukia.
‘Two kind and gentle souls who will forever remain in our hearts.
‘May their souls rest in peace and live on in the loving memories of their loved ones.’
Online, Aussies appeared in disbelief that Devarshi was honoured alongside her father, who killed her.
One said: ‘Rest in peace little angel. Heartbroken for this little girl and her mum. This man was not kind and gentle!’
‘He threw his innocent daughter overboard and let her drown! He’s a murderer! He does not deserve a funeral!’
Another said: ‘If this were my husband, he would not be getting a funeral together with my daughter.
‘Someone else can take him and do whatever they want, because I wouldn’t claim him as my husband anymore. RIP sweet baby girl.’
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Pritiben Dhandhukia (second right, front row) appeared distraught as she paid her respects to her husband and daughter
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Maulik Dhandhukia and his six-year-old daughter Devarshi were honoured at a joint funeral service on Friday (pictured)
A third wrote: ‘Rest in peace Devarshi, as for Dad, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t care less.
‘He obviously didn’t care about anyone but himself and his ‘neck pain’ when he threw her overboard,’ before going on to question him being laid to rest with his daughter.
Dhandhukia had rented a boat multiple times in the week leading up to the murder-suicide, including on one occasion with his wife.
CCTV from a nearby property showed Dhandhukia throwing his daughter overboard before jumping into the river himself. Neither could swim.
A suicide note was found on the boat at the scene.
The reason for the tragedy is unclear, but two weeks ago Dhandhukia blamed chronic neck pain for ’90 per cent of the problems I face in life’ in a post on social media.
Just two weeks before the tragedy, on June 3, Dhandhukia wrote a lengthy Facebook post about his chronic neck pain, which was triggered by a gym injury in 2005.
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Devarshi is pictured at Sydney Harbour with her mother, Pritiben
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Maulik Dhandhukia, 47, died with his daughter Devarshi (pictured together) in a suspected murder-suicide on Saturday
He wrote: ‘Hi friends, I want to give one [piece of] advice to everyone – please be very careful while doing weight-related exercises in gym.’
Dhandhukia said he was a regular gym-goer who always warmed up correctly and gradually increased his weights.
He took a week off and didn’t warm up properly, and ended up with bulging C3-C4 discs, the cartilage which sits between the third and fourth vertebrae in the neck.
‘Since then I have been having on and off neck pain which has now lasted for 21 years,’ he wrote.
MRIs years later confirmed he had nerve compression down his cervical spine.
He revealed that he originally had permanent residency in Canada, but he knew his neck would react badly to the cold.
‘To summarise, maybe 70 per cent to 90 per cent of the problems that I faced in my life were due to this neck pain,’ he wrote.
‘Please be very very careful while doing weight-related exercises in gym, as if you get a gym weights-related injury then it can take a very long time to heal.’
Family friends created a fundraiser for Pritiben on Monday.
It read: ‘I am writing to ask for your help for a woman who has just lost everything that mattered most to her.’
‘Her beloved husband and her cherished daughter – her entire family, her whole reason for getting up each morning – were taken from her.
‘The home that was once full of love and laughter is now silent and Pritiben, who gave her heart to her family every single day, has been left utterly alone.
‘None of us can bring back what she has lost. But we can make sure she doesn’t have to grieve while also lying awake at night worrying about money.’
Dhandhukia started working as an analyst in application support for the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District in 2022.
Prior to that, he worked in business development for a range of software companies in Australia and India.
His first government job in Australia was as a developer for eHealth NSW between 2018 and 2020.
NSW Police previously told the Daily Mail Dhandhukia was not known to authorities and there were no apprehended violence orders in place.
SOURCE: Murder-suicide father Maulik Dhandhukia – who drowned his six-year-old daughter and took his own life – is remembered as a ‘kind and gentle soul’ at joint funeral | Daily Mail Online