On Friday, the 32-year-old was still fighting for life at Pitampura’s Max Hospital — the same hospital where she began her medical career as an intern in 2000 after completing MBBS. It is also the hospital where she met and fell in love with another medical intern, Dr Rajiv Ranjan — her husband, and the man with whom she reportedly had a showdown before leaving home with her twin daughters on Wednesday afternoon.

She checked into a room in Hotel City Park, Pitampura, and gave a poisonous injection to each daughter before injecting herself with a double dose, the police said. The children were declared dead on arrival at Max; Kupuri was admitted in a critical state.

On Friday, the police said she is yet to regain consciousness.

According to an officer, Kupuri, who comes from Vijaywada near Hyderabad, and Ranjan fought against the odds and got married in 2002. Kupuri had at the time just got in as a gynaecologist at Ambedkar Hospital; Ranjan, who comes from Darbhanga in Bihar, joined Harish Chand Hospital as a surgeon, the officer said.

Nursing a dream that turned sour

According to the officer, as far as the police have been able to piece together Wednesday afternoon’s tragic tale, Kupuri had a row with her husband at their Rohini Sector-11 house over setting up a private nursing home. Thereafter, she left home in a huff with their two children. Police officials who took statements of Kupuri’s colleagues at Ambedkar Hospital said she had been nursing this dream — of opening a nursing home — for long but Ranjan kept postponing it, reportedly due to monetary constraints.

Over time Kupuri became depressed at the dream going sour, her colleagues have told police.

On Wednesday, she reportedly told Ranjan that her parents, settled in the US, have agreed to finance the project, which allegedly led to the row.

A senior officer said, “Kupuri had an evening duty on Wednesday but called in sick and took the day off. After the alleged spat, she took her twin daughters to Hotel City Park in Pitampura and, once in the room, gave a poisonous injection each to her daughter before injecting herself with a double dose.”

After that, she called her husband and another relative to inform them about it, the officer said. “Her husband then called the hotel management and alerted them about the matter.”

While Kupuri is still critical in the ICU of Max Hospital, her twin daughters’ bodies are in mortuary awaiting postmortem, officials said.

“We have registered a case of murder against Dr Rupa Kupuri but are yet to take her statement, as she has not gained consciousness,” an official in the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) said on Friday.

The police are meanwhile also investigating whether there was any other reason behind Kupuri taking this extreme step.