Kerala: Financial mess has four of family die in suicide pact
The police said that the possibility of registering a case for abetting suicide can be ascertained only after conducting an inquiry.
THRISSUR: A 37-year-old man and his wife committed suicide after throwing their three minor daughters into the well at Kadangod near Erumappetti here in the wee hours on Monday. While the body of Kottiliparambil Suresh Kumar, 37, was found hanging on a tree in his compound, those of his wife Dhanya, 33, and daughters Vaiga, 8, and Vaishaki, 6, were found in the well. One of the twin girls, Vaishanvi, 8, was rescued by the neigbours by the day break after they heard her crying while clinging on to a rope attached to the motor pump suspended in the well.
Relatives alleged that Suresh Kumar, a contractor laying building tiles, took the extreme step unable to stand the pressure exerted by officials of a co-operative bank over repayment of loans and that of the real estate mafia which stood in their way of selling property and settling the dues. Local residents said Suresh Kumar became rich in a short period of time by opening an unauthorized chit company but ‘Operation Kubera’ launched by the Kerala police in 2014 hit the chit fund business when those who availed funds refused to repay the installments.
“He was under pressure from the co-operative bank officials, the customers of the chit fund and from some private financiers from whom he had borrowed money,” local CPI leader O.K. Sasi said. It is also learned from the relatives and neigbours that he was not able to sell off his two-storey house and land with a market price of Rs 1 crore at a reasonable rate as the local realtor mafia wanted to buy in at a throw away price which was not enough for him to settle the liabilities.
The local realtors prevented the sale to other buyers on a reasonable rate. “I am not able sell the land and settle the liabilities,” he noted in his suicide note. Erumapetti Police said that his property could worth Rs 60 lakh and he had a liability of Rs 50 lakh. The police said that the possibility of registering a case for abetting suicide can be ascertained only after conducting an inquiry. Kunnankulam C.I. Rajesh K. Menon is investigating the case.