Seven of family commit suicide in Ranchi

Ranchi, July 30 (IANS): Seven members of a family committed suicide here, police said on Monday.

Deepak Kumar Jha, working with a leading private company, committed suicide along with his parents, brother, wife and two children, a police officer said.

Police found the bodies of the two brothers hanging from the ceiling fan in their rented accommodation.

According to A. Mishra, the house owner, Deepak Jha, 40, wanted to set up his own business but was in debt. His younger brother, Rupesh Jha, 30, was unemployed.

The five other family members were found dead on the bed. The children included a son and a daughter. The incident took place in Ranchi’s Boria area.

“Primarily, it seems a case of suicide. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and CID teams have collected samples from all seven bodies,” Amol V. Homkar, Deputy Inspector General of Police, told reporters.

“Two suicide notes have been recovered. Deepak’s suicide note had 15 pages… another suicide note recovered from Rupesh had two pages,” Homkar said.

He said: “Rupesh’s suicide note says Deepak feared that he could be implicated in a financial fraud case where he was working. We are investigating the case from all angles. Till now, we have not reached any conclusion.”

“It seems the brothers first killed the five family members and later hanged themselves. Investigation is going on. The investigation is being done under the supervision of Ranchi SSP,” he added.

According to the DIG, the post-mortem of the bodies will be conducted by a team of doctors and videography will be done.

Five members of the family were either killed by strangulation or with a sharp-edged knife.

The incident came to light on Monday morning when no one responded to the horn of the school van of Deepak’s daughter. A girl student from the van knocked on the door and saw the bodies.

According to the neighbours, the five-year-old son of Deepak was suffering from some disease since birth. Also, Deepak was under a debt of Rs 20 lakh.

This is the second such case in Jharkhand this month.

Six members of a debt-ridden family were found dead in Hazaribagh on July 14. Police were, however, not clear if it was a case of mass suicide or murder.