Six members of a family found dead in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh; bad debt, failing business forced them to take step, claims note

Six members of a Marwari family allegedly committed suicide in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district on Saturday. A note recovered from the scene mentions that the family was under a lot of pressure due to debts and losses in business. The dead include two men, two children, and two women.

According to a News18 Hindi report, the incident took place in an apartment near Khajanchi Talab in Hazaribagh . The report said that when the police arrived at the scene, they found six people — two men including the head of the family, two women and two children —dead. The neighbours of the deceased family had informed the police.

The deceased have been identified as Mahavir Maheswari, 70, his wife Kiran Maheshwari, 65, their son Naresh Agrawal, 40, his wife 38-year-old Priti Agrawal, and their two kids — Aman, 8, and Anjali, 6.

According to India Today, “ Naresh killed himself in the end by jumping off the roof of his apartment. Two people were found hanging from ceiling fans while one was strangulated to death. The girl child Anvi was poisoned, while Aman was found dead with his throat slit”.

According to reports, a brown envelope was recovered at the scene with “suicide note” written on them in Hindi and explaining the reason for the death.

Though the investigation is still on to verify the authenticity of the note, Hazaribagh Sadar DSP Chandan Vats told The New Indian Express that in the note, the family mentioned being under a lot of pressure due to mounting debts and a failing business.

In the note, the family reportedly took the extreme steps because they “couldn’t bear the pressure due to prolonged disease of the only earning member of the family… which further lead to enormous debts on them”.

The note reportedly also explains why Aman’s throat was slit. “It is written in the suicide note that since Aman could not be hanged, they had to kill him,” the DSP told the newspaper.

The police said that it is investigating both the possibilities of the deaths being murders or suicides.

This is the second incident in July where an entire family has been found dead. Earlier this month,  11 members of a family in Burari, New Delhi, were found dead in their house.

The bodies of 10 members of the family were found hanging from an iron mesh attached to the ceiling on 1 July, while that of Narayan Devi was found lying on the floor in another room of the house. According to reports, claimed that the family may have committed suicide, however, the investigation is still underway.