The Hindu : City family found dead in Ooty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

City family found dead in Ooty

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 6. The Vanchiyoor police have received an intimation from their counterparts in Ooty that four members of a city family were found dead at a lodge in the hill resort.

Police identified the deceased as Krishnakumar (48) of Aksharavedi Lane near Pettah, his wife, Jolly (36) and daughters, Riya (14) and Tina (6). The husband and wife were found dead hanging in the hotel room. The children were found dead on the bed and seemed to have been injected with some lethal substance, police said. The children are students of Holy Angels Convent in the city.

Quoting a suicide note found in the room, the police said Krishnakumar and his wife, Jolly, had entered into a pact to commit suicide after killing their children. Police said that Krishnakumar, owner of a lodge in West Fort, was deep in debt. Police suspect that debt could have been the reason for the suspected suicide.

Police said that Krishnakumar had taken Rs. 35 lakhs in 1995 from a State Government-owned money-lending firm to construct a three-storeyed lodge at West Fort. Recently, he received a notice from the institution that his properties would be attached if the loan was not repaid. An official said that Krishnakumar owed the firm about Rs. 58 lakhs.

The police said that the family had left the city on March 14. On March 31, the father of Jolly, Krishnan Nair, filed a man missing complaint at the Vanchiyoor station after his daughter's family failed to return home.

Police said the family had checked into a hotel in Ooty on April 1. The hotel staff found the family dead on April 4. A medical examination chit found on Krishnakumar helped the Ooty police trace his address.

The bodies will be brought to the house of Jolly at Sreekariyam on Monday. A city police team has left for Ooty to take care of the legalities, police said.

Three of a family found dead

In another case of suspected suicide, three persons of a family were found dead in their rented house near Dhanavachapuram under Parassala police station limits on Sunday morning.

Police identified the deceased as Krishnan Achari (65), his wife, Saraswati (55) and daughter, Deepa (25).

Police suspect the three to have committed suicide by consuming poison.

The preliminary inference of the police is that the three had entered into a pact to commit suicide owing to extreme poverty. Krishnan Achari, who was employed as a goldsmith at a jewellery shop in Udayankulangara, has been unemployed for the past six months.

He had also defaulted in paying the house rent.

An official said that Achari had telephoned his eldest daughter, Geeta, prior to committing suicide on Sunday morning.

A case of un-natural death has been registered and investigation was on.

The bodies were handed over to relatives after post-mortem examination at the Medical College Hospital here.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

City family found dead in Ooty

Coronary artery disease on the rise: experts

Anti-malaria programmes to continue

Lion-tailed Macaque baby dies

Traffic problems plague Vanchiyoor residents