Thane couple hangs 4-year-old daughter, kills selves; 13 kin blamed

THANE: Distressed over a long property dispute with relatives, a 39-year-old rice mill worker and his wife committed suicide after hanging their four-year-old daughter in Thane district late Sunday night. Shivram Patil, Dipika (33) and Anushka were found hanging from the ceiling in their house in Vaklan village near Daighar in the early hours of Monday when police rushed there following an alert.
Before taking the extreme step, Dipika sent a suicide note to her brother on WhatsApp accusing 13 relatives of constant harassment. Investigators said they also found pieces of a suicide note that someone had torn and thrown out from the window.
Police have registered a case against 13 people for abetment of suicide. Two of them—Manohar Patil (39) and Vaibhav Patil (29)—have been arrested while the others have absconded, police said.
A senior officer said the police control room was alerted about the suicide by a caller named Patil around 1am and cops reached the spot an hour later.
According to police, there was a feud between Patil and his relatives over a 10acre land. A few years ago, Patil had attacked one of his relatives, for which he was convicted and jailed.
In the note that Dipika sent to her brother, she said the relatives should be given stringent punishment. Besides, it says the family’s property should be handed over to her brother, who should donate it to an orphanage. Police have sent the bodies for postmortem.