The bodies of a couple and their daughter were found hanging in a residential apartment in the Kamothe area near Mumbai in what seems to have been a suicide pact. What is even more disturbing is all three have left behind suicide notes, each listing a different reason for ending their lives!
Their bodies were discovered by their maid on the morning of Sunday, April 23. She found the man hanging in the hall, and the mother-daughter duo in the bedroom. Their bodies had apparently been taken down before the man committed suicide. The maid then raised an alarm, alerting the neighbours who in turn called the police.
Barely days after the World Health Organisation worked hard to spread awareness of depression — one of the leading causes behind suicide — the three people had apparently committed suicide one after the other, starting with the 15-year-old girl named Oshin Patel.
Oshin had recently completed class X, but then discontinued her studies. In her suicide note, she said she was suffering from depression and frustration because her mother fought with her partner on a regular basis. She added that she was also depressed because she was not studying any more.
Then came the mother, identified as a 45-year-old MBBS doctor named Jasmine Patel who had a clinic near their home. She said in her suicide note that she could not bear to live without her daughter and was also tired of prolonged illness, and was hence ending her life. She also requested that their bodies be donated to a hospital for research purposes.
The third was Jasmine's partner Indrajit Dutta, of whom the neighbours said that he did no work for several years despite claiming he was an engineer. He has said in his suicide note that he would not be able to live without his family and was hence committing suicide.
The local police have been quoted as saying: "From the notes, we understand that the woman had severe back pain and she was unable to walk properly. We have recovered walking sticks from the house. We have sent the suicide notes to handwriting experts to verify if they were really written by different persons."
