New Delhi: On Monday night, a 42-year-old man died by suicide with six of his family members in a car parked outside a house in Panchkula’s Sector 27. In his final moments, he confided to a local resident that he was deep in debt and felt entirely alone, with no one he could bank on for support, Hindustan Times reported.
Harshit Rana, a local resident and one of the first to notice the vehicle parked outside his home around 10 pm on Monday, said he went towards the car as he was curious. Rana said he saw many people lying inside the vehicle and asked the man at the driver’s seat, who seemed to be semi-conscious. “Initially, he said they had come to attend Dhirendra Shastri’s ‘katha’ in Sector 5 and couldn’t find a hotel and thus were sleeping in the car. But when we looked closer, we sensed something was seriously wrong,” Rana was quoted as saying in the report.
Rana added that when they peeked in, the sight was horrifying. “All occupants had vomited, and the man in the driver’s seat was barely conscious. He was shaking,” he recounted.
Rana claimed that when asked further, the man told them that the family was under huge financial pressure and had collectively taken the extreme step. The man, according to Rana, said: “We’re under heavy debt… I want to die, no one helped us.”
Rana said that later he and a few neighbours were able to get the 42-year-old man out of the car. The man identified the other car occupants as his wife, parents, son, and two daughters. He then reportedly admitted that they had all consumed a poisonous substance.
After this, the local residents called the cops through Dial 112, and the 42-year-old man was taken in a police vehicle to a hospital, where he later passed away.
Family were living in a rented house in Saketri
According to reports, the family had shifted from Dehradun and was staying in Saketri on the outskirts of Panchkula. The family used to stay in a rented accommodation. Manish Chaudhary, who had rented two rooms to the family in Saketri about a month ago, described them as “a very decent family”.
Chaudhary said that the children used to play in the adjacent park every evening and their mother was active, and took morning walks. He said the family told him on Monday morning that they were going for three days with the children’s grandparents. They even asked Chaudhary to fill water while they were away.
Chaudhary pointed out that the 42-year-old man left the house daily, creating the impression that he was going to work.
“I did not seek advance payment for rent as they seemed decent people,” Chaudhary said.
However, relatives have now revealed that the family had no stable source of income, and had suffered massive losses from a factory venture and a failed taxi business.
Police recovered three mobile phones from the car — two were locked, but one was unlocked. Investigators used the unlocked phone to get contacts and inform the family’s relatives of the tragedy. Two suicide notes were reportedly found in the car and have been sent for forensic department to verify the handwriting.
