Should've tried to understand my child better: Father

At the Anti-Extortion Cell where Nikhil's parents were present yesterday afternoon along with their son, Narendra said he wished Nikhil had expressed his desire to pursue a writing career instead of engineering.

"I and my wife are in great shock after we came to know the truth and since then we have been cursing ourselves," Narendra said. "We should have understood our son at the time of taking the decision to send him to an engineering college."u00a0Narendra said knowing that Nikhil was an introvert, he should have encouraged him to tell his parents what he really wanted.

"Since childhood he has been an introvert and does not have many friends," he said. "I used to tell him that he should make friends, but he used to confine his recreational activities to reading sessions that lasted several hours."u00a0He said last year he even consulted an astrologer, who had asked him to pay more attention to his son's needs.

"In 2011 we had taken him to an astrologer, who told us that Nikhil had gone into depression since 2010 and till 2013 his stars were not good," he said. "The astrologer had asked us to take extra care of him. I should have given importance to his words and should have given extra attention to Nikhil."
He said he was now very worried about his son.u00a0"After the police incident, Nikhil's mother has received a great shock and both of us are going through sleepless nights," the father said.u00a0