Debt-ridden couple ends life

A couple in their fifties burdened by debt allegedly committed suicide at their house in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri on Friday.

No suicide note has been recovered, police said.The incident came to light around 4 pm when a neighbour went to meet 55-year-old Madhu Sudan and his wife Seema, 50. The neighbour, identified as Mehdi Hassan, kept knocking on the door, but received no response.

Hassan finally called the police control room after which local police broke open the door. “The couple was found hanging from an iron rod placed near the ceiling of one of the rooms,” said Ajay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East). Sudan and Seema were declared dead on the spot.

Sudan was a mechanic, while Seema was a house maker. They lived in a rented house near Trilokpuri Gurdwara, while their only daughter is married and stays in outer Delhi’s Rohini.

“Their bodies were taken to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital for post-mortem and forensic teams inspected the house,” another police officer added. Police later informed the couple’s daughter.

Though no suicide note was recovered from the flat, subsequent questioning of relatives and neighbours revealed that Sudan and Seema had been worried over the past few months due to overwhelming debt.

According to police, Sudan was also having trouble paying the rent of the house as the couple had a spent a large amount of money on their daughter’s wedding.
“Initial probe suggests that the couple were finding it difficult to make their ends meet. They had been borrowing money from relatives and acquaintances for a while, but failed to pay them back,” the officer said. The pressure kept on mounting and it appears that it was the reason behind the extreme step.

Senior police officers have ruled out the possibility of foul play. “We are trying to ascertain if the couple was being pressurised to return money,” the officer added.