3 of family die in suicide pact

A family of three - a man, his wife and their one-year-old son - committed suicide at Teachers Colony in Kuvempunagar of the city on Thursday. Vijay Madhukar Kanbargi, 32, Komal, 25, administered poison to their son Shourya, before consuming it themselves. The trio then jumped into a well, a km from their residence.

The couple had tied themselves to the child with a rope before jumping into the well. Fire personnel, who retrieved the bodies, found a bottle of poison nearby.

Kanbargi had been working in an educational institution and photo lab belonging to a Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) leader. He was finding it difficult to make both ends meet of his joint family with his meagre salary, says the suicide note written in Marathi by Kanbargi. There were also problems between him and his brothers over financial matters.

Sources said the suicide note mentioned that the school where he was working recently got grant-in-aid from the government. His pleas to the management to consider him for the aided post went unheard, depressing him further.