INDORE: A debt-ridden farmer and his minor daughter killed themselves by consuming poison in Shajapur district early Thursday morning. The farmer, police said, was reeling under debt and had a fight with his friend after which he took the extreme step.
The double suicide happened in Sanpkheda village, barely 3km from the Shajapur district HQ and 150km west of Bhopal.
According to police, Ishwar Singh woke up at 5am and asked his wife Lakshmi if she would take poison with him. When she said yes, Ishwar swallowed a poisonous substance from a packet, left another packet for her on the bed, and walked out of the house to die in the fields. He never made it that far and fell unconscious on the road.
Their 16-year-old daughter Khushboo woke up to this horror. Distraught, she took poison, too. Her younger brother was trying to come to grips with the shock, when he saw their mother also trying to kill herself. He snatched the packet from her and threw it away.
Khushboo was taken to the same hospital her father had been a little earlier. They were both declared dead on arrival.
The village was left shell-shocked. Senior police officers led a team to the village to understand what triggered the double-suicide.
