Unable to cope with wife’s death, man kills 3 minor children, hangs himself

Police has lodged FIR of murder and suicide as it appeared that father killed children and later killed himself. (Representational)

ONE MONTH after death of his wife due to cancer, a 35-year-old rickshaw puller, Beant Singh, killed his three minor children by hanging them and later took his own life. The incident happened in Bathinda’s village Hamirgarh on Thursday morning.

The bodies of Khushpreet Kaur (3), Sukhpreet Kaur (1) and Prabhjot Singh (5) were found by villagers along with that of Beant, who had hanged himself with a hook which was inserted in one of the wall specially for this purpose.

Beant also left behind an 8-page suicide note in which he repeatedly described as how much be loved his wife and could not save her despite all his efforts. “I love you Lovepreet Kaur “: the note said at the top. Pargat Singh, a school teacher who lives in the same village, said,”He was living a happy life with his wife and three kids. He was a rickshaw puller, however, his life changed when a few months ago, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He had saved Rs 60,000 and he took his wife to PGI to get her treated. I had asked him a number of times if he needed any money, but he refused as he was a hard working man and never used to seek help from anyone. After the death of his wife, his in-laws had asked him if they could take care of two children as he was all alone, but he refused to give them any child. His relative also wanted to adopt a child, but he refused. After the death of his wife, he sold his rickshaw and started living with his children at home. He had no source of income, but he refused to share his sorrows with anyone.”

His next door neighbour was his brother who had gone to Rajasthan two days back for cotton picking. Pargat also lived close to Beant’s house.

Police has lodged FIR of murder and suicide as it appeared that father killed children and later killed himself.

Whether he poisoned the kids or gave them sleeping pills before killing them will be revealed after the post mortem report, said policemen at Rampura police station.

Pargat said, “After death of his wife, he went into depression and could not bear the shock of death of his wife. The 8-page suicide note describes his love for his wife. In suicide note, he has written that his in-laws should not be allowed to attend his cremation ceremony and hence they were not allowed to come in village while his sister and brother attended cremation. His parents had passed away a few years ago.”

Village Sarpanch Gurmail Singh said that he had mentioned that his house should be sold away and the money should be given to village gurdwara . In the note, he had also written that this was his third attempt to kill his children and himself in the earlier two attempts he could not gather courage to do this. Bodies were cremated Thursday evening in the village cremation ground

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