Woman, her three minor daughters found hanging in Thane house; police recover 'suicide note'

The bodies of the woman and girls, aged 13, 11, and 8 years, were found hanging from the ceiling fan by her husband in the morning hours when he returned from the night shift, a police officer said.

Thane: A 32-year-old woman and her three minor daughters were found hanging in their house in Bhiwandi city of Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday, police said.

The police recovered a suicide note apparently written by the deceased woman, in which she said that nobody should be blamed for the deaths, they said.

"The bodies of the woman and girls, aged four, seven and twelve years, were found hanging from the ceiling fan of their house in Phenipada locality by her husband in the morning hours when he returned from the night shift," an official of Bhiwandi police station. The deceased were identified as Punita Lalji Bharti and her three daughters Anu (4), Neha (7) and Nandini (12), he said.

"The woman's husband works in a powerloom unit. He returned home around 9 am on Saturday after his night shift. But as there was no response from inside despite repeatedly knocking on the door, he peeped through the window and was shocked to find his wife and three daughters hanging from the ceiling," he said.

After he raised an alarm, his neighbours rushed to the spot and alerted the police. A police team found a note purportedly written by the woman, in which she said nobody should be blamed for the suicide. "We are probing the incident from all angles and the motive behind the suicide is still not known," the police official said.

A case of accidental death has been registered and the bodies of the four deceased have been sent to a government hospital in Bhiwandi, he said.