Six members of a well known business family were found dead at their residence in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh on Sunday morning, with police suspecting it to be a case of mass suicide due to financial issues.
Those found dead were identified as Mahavir Maheshwari (70), his wife Kiran Maheswari (60), son Naresh Maheswari (40), daughter-in-law Priti Maheshwari (35), grandson Aman (10) and granddaughter Annvi (7).
The city’s well known family, engaged in wholesale business of dry fruits, were residing at flat number 303 on the third floor of the four-storied CDM Shubham Apartment near Khajanchi Talab in the city.
The incident comes two weeks after the mass suicide of 11 members of a family in Delhi’s Burari.
Police recovered six brown envelopes containing suicide notes. It was written on the envelopes that illness, shop closed, borrowings, disgrace and tension caused the deaths.
“The investigation so far indicates that the family members committed suicide. As of now, we cannot rule out the possibility of murder as well,” Hazaribag SP Mayur Patel said, adding that the bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
The Maheshwaris’ next door neighbour, advocate Kailash Agarwal, said, “My wife, who woke up at 5 am, saw the Maheshwaris’ main door open and one of the body hanging from the ceiling. She then raised alarm.”
“We found Naresh’s body lying on floor near the main gate of the apartment complex. It appears that Naresh, after ensuring that all members had died, came out of this flat, went to the top of the building and jumped off from there,” SP said.
According to police, the eldest person of the family Mahavir Maheswari was found hanging from the ceiling of one of the rooms in the flat. In the same room, his grandson Aman was lying dead on a bed with his throat slit. In another room, Mahvir’s wife Kiran was found hanging from the ceiling and his daughter-in-law Priti was lying dead on a bed. The youngest member of the family, seven-year-old Annvi was found on a sofa in the dining room, a piece of cotton soaked in ether inside her mouth.
Police suspect that Naresh was the last person to commit the suicide by jumping off from the top floor of the building.
A message “Amman was killed because he couldn’t be hanged” was also written in Hindi with red ink on the envelopes, containing the suicide notes.
SP Patel clarified that as per the suicide note, financial crisis was the reason behind the suicide. “No particular person was blamed in the suicide note. It was stated that a huge amount of money of the business had gotten stuck in the market. The entire family was leading a tensed life,” the SP said.
“Naresh’s signature on the suicide note and on his cheque book were found to be similar,” SP said.
Earlier on October 10, 2016 night, five members of a Noida-based retired army medico, Dr Sukanto Sarkar’s family had committed suicide in the 10th floor of a posh Ranchi’s Riviresa apartment.
Dr Sarkar and the family had come to Ranchi to celebrate Durga Puja. Dr Sarkar had attempted suicide by stabbing himself but he survived. Five months later, he had died of heart attack.
Source: HindustanTimes