Humiliation after theft case drives them to take the extreme step

Fearing social stigma and alleged insults from friends and relatives, a woman, who was accused of stealing gold jewellery, and her husband entered into a suicide pact in the wee hours of today. While the husband died while being shifted to the K.R. Hospital, his wife died at around 1 pm.

The incident occurred at Yadavagiri where the couple lived in an outhouse behind a hotel. While 40-year-old Raju, the husband, worked as a gardener, his wife 35-year-old Latha worked as a house maid. They have three small children – 2 girls and one boy – who have now been left at the mercy of other family members. Raju and Latha hailed from Vinayakanagar in K.R. Nagar.

According to the V.V. Puram Police, a theft case was booked against Latha by T.P. Vishwanath, a resident of Yadavagiri at whose house Latha worked. In his complaint, Vishwanath stated that Latha and another woman, Devamma, were hired to clean his house for Mahashivaratri. They came to his house on Feb. 20 for cleaning as the festival fell on Feb. 24.  

Vishwanath stated that after the cleaning, it was found that a cover containing gold jewellery worth Rs. 5.5 lakh kept inside an almirah was missing. He stated that as he was in a hurry to go out of station for his father’s ceremony on Feb. 20, he had forgotten to lock  the almirah. The theft came to light when he returned.

Vishwanath  had suspected that either Latha or Devamma would have committed the theft.

Based on his complaint, the V.V. Puram Police registered a case and later recovered the jewellery from Latha’s house. Latha was arrested after a couple of days and was released on bail on Mar. 3. Later, Raju and Latha approached V.V. Puram Inspector C.V. Ravi and pleaded that they were very poor and had three children to take care of. They urged him to do something and save Latha from jail term.

Inspector Ravi, who took pity on the couple, approached  Vishwanath, who also agreed to withdraw the complaint when the case came up for hearing in a Court. Accordingly, it was decided to place the case before the Lok Adalat on Mar. 11.

Meanwhile, last week when Raju went to K.R. Nagar he had to face insults from relatives and friends who accused him of being the husband of a thief. Humiliated, Raju returned home and told his wife about it. They decided to end their lives to escape humiliation and accordingly, they consumed poison at around 4 am today when the children were fast asleep.

This morning, neighbours noticed that their house was locked and on suspicion they opened the doors only to find Raju and Latha writhing in pain. They shifted the couple to hospital where Raju died on the way and Latha died at around 1 pm.

In her statement to the Police that was recorded in front of K.R. Hospital doctors Dr. Lakshmi and Dr. Mangala, Latha had stated that they wanted to die instead of facing humiliation. Latha told the Police that three years back, she was working at the house of one Sridhar and Shakunthala at Yadavagiri where she was accused of stealing a gold necklace, a charge that Latha denied.

Latha alleged that though she had not stolen the necklace, Sridhar couple had threatened them on Mar. 5 that a case would be filed against them, three years after the incident. Latha alleged that Sridhar couple were demanding either money or the necklace which forced them to take the extreme step.