Debt-ridden man poisons minor children, hangs himself in Ghaziabad

A 40-year-old man battling a financial crisis allegedly murdered his minor son and daughter and later committed suicide at his house in Ghaziabad’s Sihani near Raj Nagar Extension early Tuesday.

Notes recovered in his room stated that the man, Sundar Singh, who ran an eatery at Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, was trying for a loan but it did not materialise, police said.

His son, a specially abled child since birth, was identified as 14-year-old Tushar and his daughter as 11-year-old Mahi. Police said the two children were found dead in a room where the three went to sleep on Monday night. Singh’s wife Shashi was sleeping in an adjoining room with the couple’s third child, aged six years.

“Around 2.45am on Tuesday, Shashi woke up and saw light in the room where her husband and children were sleeping. The door was not locked from inside. When she looked inside, she found her husband hanging with a piece of cloth and the children on the floor,” Atish Kumar Singh, circle officer (city II), said.

“We have recovered 12-14 pages of notes from the man’s room. The man was trying to get a loan as he was facing a financial crunch. He wrote he was facing losses in business. In the last note on March 11, he wrote about wanting to commit suicide when he failed to get loan,” Atish added.

Sundar was the second of three brothers. His family, however, said he never told them about any financial crisis.

“The eatery had to be closed two-and-half-months ago due to heavy snowfall. He came home and was to return on March 23. He did not face any financial crunch. At night, when my daughter-in-law saw him hanging, she started screaming and woke me up. I rushed to cut off the piece of cloth and brought down his body on my shoulders,” Bhagwan Singh, Sundar’s father, said.

Police said the crime scene was examined and evidence was collected.

“We recovered the piece of cloth with which the man hanged himself from the ceiling hook and plates of rasmalai that had a very pungent smell. It appears it contained some poisonous substance. One of the three deceased persons had vomited. We have collected samples for forensic tests,” an officer attached to investigation said.

Sundar’s elder brother Manoj submitted a written information about the incident at the Sihani Gate police station.

“The notes written by the man are in police custody and will be treated as suicide notes. He was dealing with two persons for getting a loan. He mentioned their names in his note and said they harassed him. The two will be called for questioning. If their role is established, we will book them for abetting suicide,” the circle officer said.

Sanjay Pandey, SHO of Sihani Gate police station, said the post-mortem report suggests Sundar died due to hanging. “The viscera of two children have been preserved. They died of poisoning. Further analysis will reveal the nature of the poison,” he said.