Youth kills five of a family, hangs self

A depressed, unemployed youth killed his parents and three sisters before hanging himself to death at their residence at MPM Layout at Nagarabhavi here.

The incident, suspected to have taken place on Tuesday, came to light on Thursday morning. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Labhuram said: “It looks like Yathish (26) made his parents and sisters consume food laced with poison before hanging himself.

There were no signs of struggle or injury marks on any of the bodies. He had waited for them to die and spent some 16 hours with the bodies before hanging himself with a saree from the ceiling.”

The dead were Yathish’s father Gangahanumaiah (57), a telephone mechanic with BSNL in Malleshwaram, mother Jayalakshmamma (54), a paralysis patient, sisters Hemalatha (30), a software engineer, Vimala (28), a junior engineer with KPTCL and Nethravathi (24), an engineering student.

The police said the incident came to light when Gangahanumaiah’s tenant Chandrashekar, residing on the first floor, noticed that he had not seen anyone from the family for the past two days.

He thought they might have been busy. But on Thursday morning, he sensed that something was wrong and knocked on their door but there was no response.

He also tried calling Gangahanumaiah on his phone but again there was no response. Chandrashekar then went and peeped through the window and found Yathish’s body hanging from the ceiling in the drawing room.

He alerted neighbours who informed the police. The police broke open the door and were taken aback by a strong stench. They found Gangahanumaiah’s body on the floor in the drawing room. While Jayalakshmamma and Nethravathi were found dead in a bedroom, bodies of Hemalatha and Vimala were found in another bedroom.

 ACP (West) Alok Kumar said: “It is learnt that Yatish was depressed in life as he could not complete his studies and was unemployed. He felt inferior as his two elder sisters were doing well in life. He was upset that he was not contributing to the family while the girls were doing their part. All this has made him frustrated and decided to kill them and commit suicide.”

He said some food items have been found and sent for examination. The type of poison used is yet to be identified.