In a tragic incident, a family of five, including a two-month-old infant, were found dead in a house in Tiruthangal on Thursday afternoon.
The police identified the deceased as a teacher couple, S. Lingam (45) of Balaji Nagar, his wife, Palaniammal their son, Aditya (14) and their daughter, B. Ananthavalli (27) and her daughter, Sashtika (2 months).
The police said that while Lingam was a teacher in a Government school in Devadanam, Palaniammal was a teacher in a Panchayat Union school in Sukkravarpatti.
Since the inmates of the house were not attending phone calls, Ananthavalli’s husband, working in Chennai, got suspicious and had asked a relative to visit them at Balaji Nagar.
Since, the door was locked from inside, he peeped through the window and found them dead.
Alerted by the neighbours, Tiruthangal police broke open the house and retreived the bodies in the afternoon.
“Lingam had heavily borrowed money from as many as 41 persons. The debts had run to around ₹3 crore,” Superintendent of Police K. Ferozekhan Abdullah said.
He had already attempted to take his life a couple of months back after he could not repay the loans, the SP added.
Lingam’s father had initially promised to sell his land to repay his loans. However, he is said to have retracted from the promise and this may have led the couple to take the extreme step.
Tiruthangal police have registered a case of suspicious death and all the bodies were handed over to the family members after post-mortem.
The police said that Lingam had generously contributed for his school children’s first flight travel from Madurai to Chennai few years back. He had also spent lavishly on buying dresses for the school students.
Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104, MANAS 14416, Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050 and Speak2Us mental health helpline at 9375493754.
