Father indicted in sons' violent deaths

A Glendale Heights father will plead innocent next week to charges he murdered his two sons after dousing them in gasoline and setting a fire.

was indicted Thursday on additional counts of first-degree murder for the recent death of his second son. The father will be arraigned Monday.

Patel admits his actions led to his sons' deaths, but he insisted in a March 7 Daily Herald jail interview that he only meant to harm himself in what he characterized as a suicide attempt.

"It wasn't murder," Patel said then. "No one understands. I love my kids. I was not trying to kill them, only me."

Patel, 34, is charged with causing the fatal injuries Nov. 18 after luring his sons with new toy cars into a bathroom, dousing them with gasoline and igniting the fire on the 1800 block of Harvest Lane.

The father also suffered severe burns. Afterward, he drove with his children to his older brother's house about five miles away in Hanover Park. A relative called 911.

The boys weren't expected to survive that first night, but they fought for months inside Loyola Medical Center's burn unit in Maywood. His youngest son, Om, 4, was the first to die Jan. 17. Vishv, 7, survived surgeries but took a sudden turn for the worse. He died Feb. 19.

Patel said he was suicidal while struggling with family problems involving his mother-in-law, who came to live with the couple about three years earlier. He said the tension led to marital problems.

His wife, Nishaben, was not home when the fire broke out. The couple wed in an arranged marriage in their native India in 1997, five years after he had immigrated to the United States.

Authorities aren't buying his accident story. Both boys suffered much more severe burns than their father. He also made earlier incriminating statements, officials said. The father is being held on a $10 million cash bond.