Death notes recovered; abetment cases booked

Bengaluru: Three days after his wife, two daughters and a son were found hanging in an suicide pact, the editor of a Kannada newspaper Hallagere Shankar from Mandya and his two sons-in-law were booked by the Bengaluru Police under the charges of abetment to suicide. 

Shankar, in his eight-page Police complaint, had blamed his deceased spouse for the whole tragedy. He had stated that his wife, Bharathi, 51, was the root cause of endless disputes in the family. He alleged that she didn’t allow their daughters to live with their husbands, thereby wrecking their marital lives.

However, the twist in the case was when the Police recovered three suicide notes where the accusing fingers were pointed at Shankar and his two sons-in-law Praveen and Srikanth.

On Friday evening, Shankar’s wife, daughters Sinchana, 34, Sindhurani, 31, and son Madhusagar, 25, were found hanging in the family’s home in Thigalarapalya, off Magadi Road. Sindhurani’s nine-month-old baby boy was found dead on a bed, apparently starved to death. Sinchana’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter was rescued from a state of near-starvation.

In the three suicide notes, Sinchana, Sindhurani and Madhusagar have alleged that their father Shankar had illicit relationships and the family used to fight frequently over this. Shankar and his sons-in-law were blamed for harassment and the suicide notes mention that mistreatment of women and children must stop at least now. 

Sinchana and Sindhurani stated that they were not happy either in their home or in-law’s places as the men, including their father, mistreated them. The Police have seized a laptop, a few pen drives and certain documents from the house and have issued notices to Shankar, Praveen and Srikanth to appear before them. 

Over 10 to 14 Policemen searched the house and a few torn currency notes were recovered from the rooms. Also, cash worth Rs. 15 lakh, 2 kg gold and silver valuables were recovered. 

Police suspect that the three women killed themselves on Sept. 13 and Madhusagar ended his life two days later because his body was not as decomposed as the other three corpses.

Both Sinchana and Sindhurani had been living with their parents for the past one-and-a-half years. Twenty days ago, Sindhurani had consumed some pills and later filed a Police complaint against her husband Srikanth. Sinchana had similar fights with her husband Praveen, Police said. 

Sinchana and Sindhurani were preparing for UPSC exams and aspired to get into IAS or IPS, Police said. While Sinchana was an MBA graduate, Sindhurani had studied Engineering. Madhusagar, also an engineer, worked for a Nationalised Bank.

Meanwhile, Sinchana and Praveen’s little daughter, who was rescued from a state of near-starvation, is recovering at a hospital. 

Though Praveen was shocked to learn that the child went without food for days, Police said that the child could not recognise her father as her mother stayed away from her husband.