CUTTACK: Three members of a family including an elderly couple and their son attempted suicide allegedly by consuming pesticide due to financial crisis, here on Friday.
Police identified the trio as 85-year-old Uma Charan Panda, his wife Sarojini (70) and their son Soumya Ranjan (44). The family took the extreme step at their rented accommodation in CDA Sector-6 within Market Nagar police limits where they had been staying for the past two years.
While Uma Charan is a retired advocate, his son Soumya Ranjan worked as a software engineer in a private company at Bangalore but has been staying with his parents for the last four months after being laid off from his job, police said.
When the house owner and some neighbours found the door locked from inside since a long time, they informed police. “On reaching the spot, we broke the door open and found the trio lying in critical condition in two separate rooms. They were then rushed to SCB MCH,” said ACP Pradipta Rout.
Investigation revealed the family was undergoing financial crisis, the police officer said. “As per the statement of the house owner, the family was unable to pay rent of Rs 15,000 since the last three months. The rent agreement had already completed in January but the family had not vacated the house despite repeated reminders,” Rout said.