The police on Wednesday said that mounting pressure from the bank to repay ₹5 lakh mortgaged on their housing loan exacerbated by recurrent bouts of vehement familial dispute and fear had led to the suicide of Lekha, 55, and her daughter Vaishnavi, 19, at their home at Maraimuttom in Neyyatinkara on Tuesday.
Investigators said they were relying on a suicide note left behind by the mother and daughter as a road map for solving the high-profile case, which had caused a public outcry and also brought into sharp focus the questionable lending practices of nationalised banks.
Neyyatinkara Dy.SP Sini F. Dennis told The Hindu that the mother and daughter had entered into a suicide pact and they feared that they would soon be rendered homeless and on the street.
The co-signed record they left behind indicated that Lalitha's husband R. Chandran, his mother and sister persistently harassed Lalitha and undermined her efforts to sell the plot to settle the loan believing that a ficus tree on the land had supernatural powers to alleviate their financial troubles.
The note also threw light on the harassment Lalitha faced as a bride for higher dowry. The police booked Chandran, his mother and sister for abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the IPC.
Officials said the victims had died of third-degree burns and respiratory failure due to smoke asphyxia. Investigators said that on the face of it, the bank officials seemed not to have direct complicity in the suicide deaths. However, they have not given them a clean chit yet.
Officials said their visit to the house on Friday to serve notice for repossessing the home and persistent calls to Lalitha appeared to have aggravated the situation. The police have summoned bank officials for questioning.
Leaders across the political spectrum had condemned the bank's move to evict the family out of their home for realising a paltry sum they had taken as loan. Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said hundreds of families in Kerala faced a similar predicament and he would take up their case at the next meeting of the banker’s committee.