Salem: Elderly couple lose property case, end life

Salem: Deep strains of the broken joint family system seem to be manifesting in bizarre ways and economic independence of nuclear families is no guarantee of family peace either.

Despaired over being at the losing end of a property dispute, an elderly couple in Salem committed suicide after writing a letter to one of their sons.  

Police said that Natarajan, 55, resident of Narasingapuram was residing with his wife Chandrakala. Their sons, Arun Prakash and Jai Karthik, are working in private firms in Bengaluru and Thailand respectively.

Natarajan had some differences with his brother, Vijayragavan, over their house property when they were living as members of a joint family.

Following a court battle, Natarajan’s brother won the civil suit. Vexed over this outcome, Natarajan and his wife decided to commit suicide. They sent a letter by courier to his son in Bengaluru on Thursday, police said. Arun had received the courier on Friday, but as fate would have it, he opened it only on Saturday.
Shocked over the contents of the letter, Arun informed his relative to check it out.

On information police here broke open the locked house and found the bodies of the elderly couple. Police also recovered four pages long suicide note and began further investigations.