Mumbai: Three members of a family allegedly hanged themselves at their residence in Indra Vihar in Kamothe, Sector 36, the police said on Sunday. The bodies were discovered by the domestic help on Sunday when she opened the flat. She then alerted the building’s residents.
While Indrajit Dutta (50) was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the hall, his live-in partner, Dr. Jasmine Patel (45), and her daughter, Oshin (15), were found in a bedroom of their three-bedroom rented apartment.
“A note signed by Patel and dated April 20 was found in the bedroom. It said she was fed up of her ill health and had decided to commit suicide. It added that since she did not want her daughter to be left alone, her daughter, too, was ending her life. The note also mentioned that their bodies should be donated to the KEM Hospital’s anatomy department,” Senior PI Ashok Naik, Kamothe police station, said.
Dutta’s suicide note, meanwhile, is dated April 22. “It says that he was drunk when he found Patel and her daughter hanging. He brought their bodies down and laid them on bed. He said that since he had nobody else and no other reason to live, he, too, decided to end his life,” Mr. Naik said.
He added, “The date and time of their death can be confirmed only after we get the post-mortem reports. The domestic help had been asked to take three days off and returned to work on Sunday. Prima facie, it seems that Patel and Dutta were not married, and Oshin was Patel’s daughter, as in Dutta’s suicide letter, he has called the girl ‘her daughter’”
Reclusive trio
Patel had a clinic in Kamothe, but had not been going to work for a few months. Oshin, too, had stopped going to school after Class X. According to police, Dutta was unemployed. He told everyone that he was an engineer. “They had been living in this apartment for one-and-a-half years. Before that, they lived in another building in the same area for two years. We are verifying for how long Patel had been running her clinic. We have found that she suffered from some ailments due to obesity and also had some psychological problems,” the police officer said.
Radheshyam Pal, who has been working as the building’s watchman for two-and-a-half months, said, “I have never seen Patel going to her clinic. But Dutta used to often come down to buy vegetables and groceries. Patel and her daughter were never seen outside much.”
Meanwhile, Nagendra Shah, a resident of the building, said, “It seems that Dutta had not been working for the last five months at least. Nobody knows much about the family, as they hardly left their flat. The police say the incident happened on Thursday, but there was no foul smell in the building.”
A case of suicide has been registered with the Kamothe police.
