A Deputy Block Development Officer (BDO) and his wife allegedly committed suicide after poisoning their two children at their rented house in Alangayam late on Sunday.
The deceased were identified as Thirumalai (35), a deputy BDO in Jolarpet, wife Geetha (23) and their two children, Puvisai Sona (4) and Saisri Sachin (2). The incident came to light around 9 am on Monday.
Ravi, Thirumalai’s neighbour had given Thirumalai his house keys on Friday before leaving for his relative’s house. Ravi returned on Monday morning and came to Thirumalai’s house to pick up his house key. As he got no response, he called Thirumalai and his wife on their mobile phones, but in vain. When he peeped into the house, he found Thirumalai hanging from the ceiling, police said.
Ravi with the help of friends, immediately broke open the front door of Thirumalai’s portion of the house. They also found his wife and children unconscious and frothing at their mouths. They alerted the police.
On information, the Alangayam Police rushed to the spot and conducted an enquiry. The police recovered the bodies and sent them to the Vaniyambadi Government Hospital for autopsy.
Police found a note written by Thirumalai in the house. “Thirumalai wrote that his wife Geetha had become mentally unstable and used to beat the children very badly. He wrote that he took the extreme step fearing that she would kill their children,” said deputy superintendent of police of Vaniyambadi, S Manickam, who was investigating the case.
Thirumalai, in the suicide note, had requested his friend Sargunam to hand over his house patta to his mother and also mentioned that he had parked his car in Asiriyar Nagar in Tirupattur. He also mentioned that their organs could be retrieved for transplantation.
The preliminary enquiry divulged that Geetha had poisoned the children and also consumed it, while Thirumalai hung himself. “Geetha and Thirumalai had slept after talking to their neighbour till around 11 pm on Sunday. They could have resorted to extreme step at midnight,” the DSP said. He, however, said, the neighbours had not seen Geetha behaving violently.
“We will come to know the reason behind the suicide after a detailed enquiry with relatives,” the DSP added.
Police registered a case under Section 174 of CrPc following a complaint from Geetha’s mother Vanitha.