Techie jumps into lake with her son

Chennai: A 32-year-old woman techie, suspected to be suffering from depression, committed suicide by jumping into the Puzhal lake along with her six-year-old son on Saturday. While the boy’s body was fished out on Saturday evening, the woman’s body washed ashore on Sunday, said the police.

On Saturday afternoon, a valve operator with metro water, Dilli Kumar, alerted the local police after he noticed that a scooter stood abandoned near the lake for a long time and the phone kept ringing inside it. Local police personnel rushed to the spot and secured the scooter, in which they found a suicide note and a mobile phone.

Investigations revealed that the woman, R. Nithya (32), had been separated from her husband, Rameshbabu, following differences between them, the police said. She was working at an IT company in Sholinganallur and stayed with her six-year-old son Sreejith at 20thstreet, Lenin Nagar in Ambattur. Police investigations revealed that the woman was depressed for the past few days following the separation from her husband. Rameshbabu, also a techie, works abroad, the police said. On Saturday, Nithya took Sreejith to the Puzhal lake in her scooter and threw the boy into the lake before jumping in herself. When the valve operator found the bike, he noticed the constant ringing of the mobile phone in it after which he alerted the police, an official said. The police recovered the suicide note in which she had stated that she did not wish to live any more.

Rescue personnel from Red Hills fire station, who set up a search for the duo, managed to fish out the boy’s body late in the morning while the woman’s body washed ashore on Sunday around 7 am, the police said.

The bodies were moved to the government Stanley hospital for post-mortem.