Unable to clear his credit card debt of a whopping Rs 8 lakh, a 34-year-old man committed suicide by jumping off the terrace of a building in New Delhi with his four-year-old daughter in his arms. His 31-year-old wife also jumped but survived the fall. The incident took place at Jagatpuri on Monday.
While the man died immediately, his daughter escaped when her fall was cushioned by a scooter parked outside the building. His wife is being treated for head injuries at GTB Hospital, Hindustan Times reports.
The man worked with a private company in Gurgaon while his wife is a homemaker. They lived on the ground floor of the four-storey building.
Meghna Yadav, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara), said that the family saw suicide as the only solution after the man racked up credit card bills of Rs 8 lakh. The banks were continuously calling for the money which added to his stress.
The last straw was when the family friends and relatives refused to lend them money to get out of the mess they were in.
There were no eyewitnesses as the incident happened at 3.30 am. The couple's neighbours woke up to the sound of their fall. The trio was rushed to the hospital where the man was declared brought dead.
"The girl survived because she fell on the seat of a scooter parked below. Her mother received serious head injuries but will survive. He was declared brought dead at the hospital," a police officer told HT.
The woman woke up from a coma on Wednesday and explained the dire situation her family was in. "We took the extreme step because we were very disheartened," the woman said. "My husband had been telling me we would be better dead than the daily tension about the debts," she added.
