‘Depressed’ man kills wife, son; hangs self

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old property dealer, his wife and their son were found dead at their residence in southwest Delhi’s Shyam Vihar on Sunday morning.

Police official said that Chetna, the 12-year-old daughter of the deceased property dealer, Ajay Kumar, was found lying unconscious next to her sleeping grandmother in another room in the same house.

Prima facie, investigators said that Kumar appears to have strangulated his wife Manju Kumar, 36, his son Magan (8) and Chetna (12) before hanging himself.

The bodies have been sent for postmortem with police not ruling out death due to poisoning too.

Police officials have also recovered a suicide note, in which Kumar has reportedly claimed that he was depressed and has sought forgiveness for his action, without blaming anyone.

The deceased in the note has allegedly stated that he was depressed since the death of his brother Mahavir, who too had committed suicide a year-and-a- half-ago.

Police said the couple’s daughter, Chetna, was unfit to give a statement and was found next to her sleeping grandmother who claims to have not realised what happened in the other room.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Shibesh Singh said they received a call from two hospitals where the four members of the family were rushed to around 10am on Sunday.

“The incident came to light when Ajay’s nephews had come to his house to call Magan out for a game of cricket on Sunday morning,” Singh said.

The deputy commissioner of police said that the children later told the police official that they raised an alarm after finding their uncle, Ajay, hanging from the ceiling fan while their aunt and cousins were lying unconscious.

The deputy commissioner of police Shibesh Singh further added that the bodies of Manju and Magan were found with injury marks around their necks.

Chetna was found lying in another room with similar marks on her neck.

A one-page suicide note, written in Hindi, was later recovred by the police from the same room where Kumar was found hanging.

Initial investigations have revealed that since the death of his brother Mahavir, Ajay had agreed to take care of his two sons and made them shift next to his house.

LAST TEXT MESSAGES TO FRIENDS

Deputy commissioner of police said that Kumar had on Saturday night sent New Year wishes to a couple of friends in which he had said that it was his last message to them.

“We have spoken to Ajay’s friends. They told us that the message had left them worried and tensed,” said the DCP.

He further added, “Ajay, however, had later followed it up with another message in which he had said ‘in the year 2017’ which they thought implied that the message was the last for the year.

POLICE SAID THEY HAD FOUND INJURY MARKS AROUND THE NECKS OF THE PROPERTY DEALER’S WIFE, SON AND DAUGHTER