Chennai: Woman, 2 daughters end lives

Chennai: Three of a family, a 55-year-old woman and her two daughters, died in a suicide pact, within a week of her husband getting arrested in a job scam by Cuddalore police, at their relative’s place in M.G.R. Nagar, during the small hours on Saturday. Usha Rani (55) and her daughters, Kalaivani, (29) and Vijayalakshmi (27)) were found hanging from the ceiling by the former’s nephew Parthasarathy, who checked on them after they failed to come down from their first floor accommodation at around 7 am. The two daughters had done their doctorates. Preliminary investigation suggested the family shifted from Chidambaram to Chennai after Usha’s husband Devarajan was caught in a multi-crore job scam. He had retired from the HR & CE department.

The family settled in Vyasarpadi on May 28, and was at peace, until a criminal case was preferred with District Crime Branch (DCB) in Cuddalore. On July 3, DCB sleuths arrested Devarajan from his Vyasarpadi residence, and he was subsequently remanded to judicial custody. Following the arrest, the cops got back to question Usha Rani as well. Usha Rani along with her daughters, and son, Sivapalan moved to her elder sister Meenakshi’s house at Alagiri Nagar in M.G.R. Nagar and were staying there. The women were talking with the relatives until 11 pm and had reportedly taken the drastic step during the small hours.

Sivapalan, suffering from mental illness, was asleep while the other three were hanging from the ceiling when Parthasarathy peeked into their room. Devarajan’s role was to collect money and hand it over to racketeers, who convinced him and the job-aspirants placements in Tangedco. Lured by the incentives, Devarajan and his wife roped in more aspirants, and increased their collection’s cut. However, the racketeers vanished with the money. The job aspirants began pestering for money and lodged police complaints.