Patna: Five members of a family died after they consumed poison in Bihar’s Nawada district in a suicide pact, police said on Thursday.
Another member is battling for her life in a hospital.
Facing humiliation from a money lender, the family of six consumed poison late on Wednesday evening.
The deceased are identified as Kedar Lal Gupta, his wife Anita Devi, daughter Guria Kumari (20), Sabnam Kumari (19) and Prince Kumar (17). Their daughter Sakshi Kumari is stated to be critical.
According to Sakshi, her fruit vender father had borrowed money from a person named Manish Kumar but was unable to repay the amount.
“Manish was pressuring my father to repay the loan. He, along with three to four people, came to our house daily and abused us. My father used to give Rs 1,000 every day to them but was unable to repay the whole amount,” Sakshi told Nawada police in her statement.
“The entire family was depressed. He was unable to open the fruit cart due to shortage of money. We are unable to eat a full meal,” Sakshi said.
My father finally decided to commit suicide. As per the pact, we went to a Mazar near Adarsh society in Nawada town and consumed the poison,” she said.
After consuming the poison, they all fell unconscious. The passers-by spotted them and informed the local town police station. The victims were rushed to Sadar hospital where five of them were declared brought dead.
“Six persons of a family consumed poison and five of them died. We are investigating all the angles. The victims were under a huge debt. We are trying to nab Manish Kumar,” said Gaurav Mangla, SP of Nawada.
As per RBI guidelines, the lender cannot abuse the customer who takes loan. Still, banks and private lenders hand over the cases of defaulters to recovery agents. They abuse loan customers and humiliate them. There are many cases in the country where loanees have taken extreme steps after recovery agents applied pressure on them.
The victims lived in a rented accomodation in the New Area locality in Nawada for the past 20 years.
–IANS