india

Updated: Feb 01, 2014 01:32 IST

A local court on Friday sentenced five persons to five years imprisonment for abetting suicide of an entire family including three children of a trader from Pehowa town in the district.

The court of Ranjana Aggarwal held Hari Singh, Ram Kumar, Pehal Singh, Prem Singh and Bhram Singh guilty for abetting suicide. The convicts are landlords from Kurukshetra who had refused to return loaned money.

Sixth accused Mahavir Singh, who was a munim of Mam Chand Singla, had died recently.

Mam Chand Singla, a debt-ridden trader, along with his family of nine members - wife Nirmla, sons Pradeep and Amit, daughter-in-laws Bublee and Seema and grandchildren Ishika, Nancy and Nikita-, had driven his car into the Bhakra Canal near Jyotisar village in 2008.

As Singla was not visiting his office at a local mandi at Pehowa for the last few days, the staff informed his relatives.

On visiting the house on March 16, 2008, his relatives and employees found a suicide note scribbled on a wall.

Singla had named them for driving the family to commit suicide. It was written on the wall that the family would commit suicide in the canal as those named in the note were not returning his money to tune of nearly Rs 2 crore.

Public prosecutor Kasturi Lal told Hindustan Times on Friday that the police had found a suicide note placed under a brick which was signed by Singla and his sons Pradeep and Amit.

“The note was duly authenticated by the forensic and handwriting and it had emerged as clinching evidence in the crime,” said Lal. The public prosecutor said that Singla had lent money to 21 local persons, who had allegedly refused to pay him back. As his payments were stuck, he felt humiliated for not settling his loan amounts and he committed suicide along with his family.