Rs 10 lakh taken from neighbours may be behind Tamil Nadu family’s suicide

india

Updated: Oct 18, 2019 22:41 IST

Four members of a family including a woman and her two daughters committed suicide near Auroville township in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, police said on Friday. Preliminary inquiries suggest family members could have taken the extreme step due to mounting debts.

The deceased identified as Sundaralingam (40), Maheswari (35), Krithika (17) and Sameeksha (13) were residents of Kuyilapalayam village near Auroville.

An inquiry officer with the Auroville police station said Sundaralingam was working in a bakery and his wife Maheswari was a maid at a hotel in Auroville.

“Maheswari did not go to work since Monday, therefore, the hotel owner sent someone to check on Maheswari on Thursday night. The hotel staff found the door of Maheswari’s house locked from inside,” said the inquiry officer.

Police broke open the door to find Sundaramoorthy had hung himself and his wife and daughters were lying dead on a bed and their bodies decaying, sources added.

“The couple had a debt of around Rs.10 lakh. They had collected money from their neighbours for Dipawali chit fund since last year,” the police officer stated.