Mandya: A man, unable to bear harassment from the representatives of private finance companies and his garments store suffering loss due to ‘Shakti’ scheme of the State Government, allegedly strangled his wife and newlywed son at his house before ending his life at the garments store in the town in the wee hours of yesterday.

The deceased have been identified as Prabhakar (65), his wife Jyothi (55) and son Santosh (30), all residents of Nehru Nagar in the town. Prabhakar has left a death note behind and his daughter-in-law was in the house when the incident took place.

Yesterday around 5 am, Prabhakar allegedly strangled his wife Jyothi with a dhoti and when Santosh tried to prevent his father, Prabhakar also strangled him to death. Prabhakar later went to his garments store near the house and hanged self to death. The incident came to light when Prabhakar’s daughter-in-law went to wake up her husband and mother-in-law only to find them dead.

In his death note, Prabhakar has stated that he had killed his wife and son following debts besides mentioning that he had suffered losses in the garments business due to the ‘Shakti’ free bus travel scheme as women, utilising the scheme, were travelling to other places for free and were purchasing clothes resulting in his business coming down drastically.

As the business had come down, Prabhakar was unable to repay the loans he had taken and representatives of the private finance companies threatening to knock on his door if he did not repay.

Mandya Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr. V.J. Shobha Rani, who conducted an inspection, said that a death note was found in the house which stated about the housing loan and he facing problems to pay the EMI due to loss in the business as customers were going to other places to purchase garments by utilising the free bus travel scheme ‘Shakti’ rolled out by the State Government.

The SP further said that as per the information got at the spot, Prabhakar first killed his wife and then his son. He later went to his garments store and ended his life. More information and the exact cause of deaths would be known only after receiving the post-mortem reports, the SP added.

Meanwhile, deceased Santosh’s wife told the Police during preliminary enquiry that she was given in marriage to Santosh on Apr. 26 and was staying in the same house along with Prabhakar and Jyothi. She further said that on Monday at about 12 midnight, everybody had dinner and retired to their respective rooms. She woke up at about 6.30 am yesterday, freshened up, prepared breakfast and went to wake up her mother-in-law, only to see her husband and his mother dead.

She told that Police that she did not know when her husband woke up and went to his parents’ room besides stating that they were leading a peaceful life and there were no issues between any of them, the SP informed.

Post-mortem was performed and the bodies were handed over to the family members, the SP said and added that Mandya East Police have registered a case and are investigating.