CHENNAI: An elderly couple ended their lives after one of them fell sick, near Maduravoyal on Friday. Arjunan (70), a resident of Vel Nagar, was the caretaker of a small temple in the neighbourhood. His wife Anjalakshi (60) was a homemaker. According to the police, Arjunan fell sick recently, and his brother P Shanmugam used to bring food for the couple every day.
On Friday, when Shanmugam went to deliver food, the couple did not attend to the door. He realised the door was partially open, and peeked through it to find both Arjunan and Anjalakshi hanging from the ceiling -- from two ends of a saree. With the help of neighbours, Shanmugam recovered their bodies, while the ambulance crew that arrived on spot confirmed that both of them had died.
Maduravoyal police registered a case and sent the bodies for postmortem. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the couple did not have children. Since Arjunan fell ill recently, the couple were under depression that they could be separated due to Covid, and decided to end their lives together.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on Tamil Nadu’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)