Domestic strife drives couple to suicide

Driven by domestic strife, a couple allegedly committed suicide by hanging themselves at their house in JP Nagar on Friday night.

The victims were identified as Mallikarjun, 45, and Saubhagya, 36, residents of Ashtalakshmi Layout.

Natives of Banavara near Arsikere in Hassan district, they were married for 20 years and had two children – Anusha, 19, and Shivashankar, 15.

Saubhagya was a cutting-machine assistant at a printing unit in the locality and Mallikarjuna was employed at a separate printing unit in the same area.

Mallikarjuna being a habitual drinker, the couple were not on good terms since the last few years, as he would return home in an inebriated state and quarrel with his family members.

Squandering his earnings to feed his habit, Mallikarjuna had driven the family into financial crisis, police said.

Shivashankar said, “My father returned home drunk at around 10 pm and picked a quarrel with my mother who reacted violently. I felt irritated and left for my cousins’ house in the neighbourhood.”

Police said Mallikarjuna followed suit minutes later and Saubhagya slammed the door shut behind him.

On his return, Mallikarjuna grew suspicious and kept knocking the door, but there was no response. He cried for help.

“I heard my father crying for help and I rushed to my house. We broke open the door and found my mother’s body hanging by a veil from a ceiling fan,” a sobbing Shivashankar told this paper. “By the time I could bring my cousins, my father had lowered my mother’s body and used the same veil to hang himself,” he said.

 The police, ruling out foul play, said though the family members rushed the two to a nearby private hospital, doctors declared them dead on arrival.