Couple fight over FB addiction, end lives

A couple committed suicide after a quarrel over the wife’s addiction to Facebook, in Ramaiah Layout in Bagalgunte on Monday morning.

Anup V (32) and his wife Soumya (23), both from Somwarpet in Kodagu, were found hanging from ceiling fans in separate rooms. The couple’s three-year-old son Hardik was in the house when the incident happened.

Anup was working at a poultry feed factory in Peenya Industrial Area while Soumya was a homemaker.

The incident came to light when Anup’s brother knocked on Soumya’s door on Monday and got no response.

A senior police officer said that according to neighbours and relatives, Soumya was addicted to Facebook by sending friend requests to many people and messaging friends, neglecting her husband and son. The couple had a fight over the issue on Sunday night and went to sleep. Around 5 am, Anup locked their room from the outside and went to sleep in another room.

Around 7.30 am, Soumya woke up and found herself locked and contacted her elder brother Ravichandran in Somwarpet. She told him about the fight she had with Anup and that she was locked up in the room. She asked him to come over and open the door.

Ravichandran reached her house by afternoon and despite repeated knocks, nobody opened the doors. He later called the neighbours who broke open the doors and saw Hardik crying in a room and found Anup and Soumya hanging from the ceiling in separate rooms. The bodies were shifted to the hospital for postmortem.

The police said that the couple may have committed suicide around 10.30 am. Preliminary investigations revealed that Soumya first hanged herself from the ceiling and later Anup, who noticed this, went to another room and ended his life.

The couple has not left a suicide note. The police are investigating the case based on a statement by Ravichandran and phone call records.