HYDERABAD: Four members of a family, including two teenagers, committed suicide due to financial problems at Jeedimetla on Sunday. The victims were identified as B Raju, 45, his wife Rani, 38, their children, Akshay, 18, and Avani, 16, from New LB Nagar in Shapur Nagar of Jeedimetla.

Raju, a native of Pragnapur, along with his family had settled down in Shapur Nagar four decades ago and he was running a wholesale grocery store. His son Akshay was a degree first year student at Aurora Degree College at Chikkadpally,while his daughter Avani was a class X student of The School in Shapur Nagar. In the last one year, Raju incurred heavy losses in the business and ended up in a debt of Rs 8 lakh, police said. In 2012, when a similar situation arose, Raju's four brothers, who are also into various businesses, had bailed him out by clearing his debts.

The suicides came to light on Sunday morning when a milk man went to Raju's house. "As no one was responding to the door bell, the milk man peeped into the house through the glass window and saw the couple hanging from the iron hooks in the hall with a rope," Jeedimetla inspector T Narasimha Raju said.

Raju's brothers, who stay in the same building, were alerted about the incident and they entered the house by breaking the main door latch. They found the Raju and Rani were found handing in the hall, while their two children also lying dead on the floor, the SI said.

Police suspect that prior to killing themselves, the couple might have forced the two children to commit suicide in the same manner.

Forensic experts , who performed post-mortem on the bodies, told police that the death occurred due to hanging. There was no suicide note and a case of suspicious death was registered.

