PATNA: In a shocking incident, a man in Jharkhand’s coal town of Dhanbad killed his wife, their two young children and his sister-in-law by poisoning before committing suicide before a running train on Monday.
The body of Om Prakash, 36, who worked with Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), was found beside a railway track, and police said he had apparently thrown himself in front of a running train.
At his house at Barora in Baghmara area, four bodies were recovered - his wife Suman Devi, 32; his sons Piyush Kumar, 12, and Harshit Kumar, 8, and his sister-in-law Nitu Kumari. Autopsy of the bodies revealed that while Suman Devi died on Thursday night, the other three died on Sunday, said police.
A suicide note found in his house and purportedly written by Om Prakash said he caused the deaths because of his “intolerable headache” and that there was no illicit relationship between him and his sister-in-law. In the signed letter, he wrote that he was too scared to think of his family’s future after his death and that he killed his sister-in-law as she was suffering from tuberculosis.
Neighbours of Om Prakash told police that he and his sister-in-law were very close and that there was a possibility of them having been in an intimate relationship.
“His sister-in-law had come to visit him on Sunday morning. He seems to have killed her and his two young sons on Sunday. A probe is on,” said Dhanbad senior superintendent of police Manoj Ratan Chaubey.
Dr Alok Kumar, a senior doctor at Dhanbad’s Pataliputra Medical College and Hospital who saw the autopsy report, said the death of the two women and two boys was caused by poisoning.
It was the two dead women’s brother, Binod Nonia, who first learnt of the four deaths. “My younger sister had left our home at Fusro in the morning saying she was going to a beauty parlour. When she did not return by the evening, I called Om Prakash and he said she would reach home later in the evening,” he told police.
Nonia rushed to Om Prakash’s home immediately and found the latter opening the door and rushing out. Nonia saw the four bodies in the house and called the police.