Three of family end lives over mounting debts

CHENNAI: Three members of a family were found hanging from the ceiling at their rented house at Vinayagapuram on Saturday. Police, who identified the deceased as Shameel Ahmed, 40, a mobile phone shop owner, his wife Tabu, 36, and their six-year-old daughter Shameem Taj, said they suspected the three may have ended their lives due to mounting debts.

On Saturday morning, when none of the family members came out of their house for a long time, Chandrika, the house owner, and a few neighbours suspected something was wrong and looked through an open window. They spotted the couple and their daughter hanging.

A few neighbours call the police control room and a team rushed to the place and sent the bodies to the Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital for postmortem.

A case was registered under CrPC Section 174 (death under suspicious circumstances). The police team conducted a thorough search at the house but didn’t find any suicide note, a senior officer said.

Preliminary inquiries conducted by police with people in the neighbourhood as well as the dead couple’s relatives revealed that Ahmed had been reeling under severe financial pressure for the past few months and had not even paid the house rent for more than four months.

If in distress or having suicidal thoughts, call 104 for the health department's helpline that offers counselling or 044- 24640050 for Sneha suicide helpline.