AMN / Ranchi

Seven members of a family were reportedly commit suicide in a rented house in Kanke locality of here on Monday. The police say the family was under “financial strain” and apparently committed suicide.

The victims included a sexagenarian couple, their two sons, a daughter-in-law and two minor grandchildren. Two bodies of male members were found hanging from ceiling fans, while the others were found on a bed.

The victims were identified as Dipak Jha (40), wife Soni, daughter Drishti (6), son Jungi (2), brother Rupesh (30), father Sachidanand Jha (65) and mother Gayatri Devi (60).

Dipak, who belonged to Munger district of Bihar, was the sole breadwinner of the family and worked for Godrej company. The cause of the deaths would be ascertained only after the post-mortem examination, the police said.

The police found a 15-page suicide note on Dipak’s body and a two-page document on Rupesh’s body. The documents suggested the family was under debt and struggling to pay bills. Jha had not paid the house rent for two months. They had shifted to the single-storey house in January.

Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said: “Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide. The bodies had been sent for post-mortem examination. A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory lifted scientific evidence from the scene.”

“We are awaiting the post-mortem reports to ascertain the cause of deaths,” said the Ranchi SSP.

3rd mass suicide in July:
July 1: 11 members of a family commit mass suicide in Delhi’s Burari
July 15: Six members of a family end life in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand