BENGALURU: A 28-year-old woman strangled her two-year-old son before hanging herself at their house in Kalyanagar in Chandra Layout on Saturday night. In her suicide note, she alleged that her husband always chewed tobacco (gutka) and remained busy on the phone.
The deceased are Prathima Mangalurkar and her son Saarthvik S. She was married Santhosh Shetti who works as first division assistant in the Excise department.
The couple hail from Karwar. The police said the incident took place on Saturday evening, and came to light when Shetti tried to contact his wife repeatedly over the phone call. When he did get not any response, he went home at 9pm and found her hanging and his son killed. He alerted the neighbours before Chandra Layout police rushed to the spot and shifted the bodies to Victoria Hospital for postmortem.
In her suicide note, Prathima apologised to God saying she did not wish to live anymore. However, she did not mention the reason for taking this step, and only stated that her husband was addicted to gutka and was always busy on the phone. She wrote that she did want the child to die but thought that he would be alone. She also wished a better future for her husband.
Shankarnath Mangalurkar and Vidhya, parents of Prathima, made a statement before the police. “They said that the couple married four years ago and did not have any issues. Since she was short-tempered, she decided to take this extreme step. They made no allegations against Shetti, and said he took care of their daughter,” a police officer said.
Vidhya told the police that she made a phone call to her daughter around 3pm on Saturday, and that everything had seemed normal. She said that she was shocked when came to know about the incident on Saturday night and rushed to the city early on Sunday morning. Prathima’s parents received both the bodies to take to Karwar for the final rites.However, Chandra Layout police have filed a case of murder against Prathima and are further investigating the case.
If you are having thoughts of committing suicide or are emotionally distressed, help is available. You can get in touch with the SAHAI helpline at 080-25497777, open from Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 10pm, or 104 Arogya Sahayavani, which is available 24/7.