PUNE: Bodies of a couple and their two minor children were found hanging at their residence in Pune city of Maharashtra, police said on Friday.
The bodies were found late on Thursday night, police said.
Police suspect that the couple might have taken the extreme step as the family was apparently facing a financial crisis due to COVID-19.
"All the four members of the family were found hanging from the ceiling of their residence in Sukhsagar Nagar area late on Thursday night," a police official said.
The police said that it could be a suicide pact, wherein Atul Shinde (33) and his wife Jaya (32) first killed their children- son Rugved (6) and daughter Antara (3)- before hanging themselves, he said.
"Shinde ran a small business of making identity cards for schools and it seems the family was facing a financial crisis as their business might have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the official said.
As there was no response to the repeated phone calls made to the victim by their family members and friends on Thursday, the police were alerted, he said.
"Although no suicide note was recovered from the scene, the couple had allegedly written a message on a wall saying that no one should be held responsible for their deaths," an official from the Bharti Vidyapeeth Police Station said.
The couple's signatures were also found below the message, he said.
The police are in the process of registering a case and further investigation is underway, he added.