Five members of a family were found dead inside their home in Kokrajhar district of Assam on Monday, 2 November, reportedly due to a large financial debt. Their bodies were found hanging from the ceiling, a senior police officer said.
The deceased were identified as Nirmal Pal (45), his wife Mallika (40) and their daughters Puja (25), Neha (17) and Dipa (15).
Rakesh Raushan, SP of Kokrajhar district, told The Indian Express, “Prima facie it appears they died by suicide. We have found a suicide note. The suicide note indicates that Paul was under pressure after incurring a large amount of debt. People who know the family have told us that the loan amount was around Rs 30 lakh,”
“His eldest daughter was a private school teacher," he said.
Nirmal Paul, a sub-dealer of an LPG agency in Tulsibil Market, had collected huge sums of money from people to provide LPG connections through his sub-agency but failed to deliver on his promise due to the lockdown and the change of rules by oil firms.
Kamal Ghosh, a local leader of the All BTR Bengali Youth Student Federation, who was with the relatives at the cremation on Monday evening, told The Indian Express, “We are failing to understand how can such a suicide in a pact take place? We feel police should investigate whether it was a murder.”
As soon as the incident came to light, owners of all shops and commercial establishments at Tulsibil town downed their shutters.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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