MITHI: A couple, belonging to a Thakur family, and their three children were found dead in their home in Nagarparkar’s remote village of Koya, police said on Saturday.

They believed that Shankar, son of Khet Singh Thakur, allegedly poisoned his wife, Pawan Bai, and their three children — Jaswant, 5, Gulji 8, and Geeta, 3 — before taking his own life by hanging himself from the ceiling of their room.

The bodies were shifted to the Nangarparkar Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The police said initial inquiry suggested that immense mental stress caused by serious domestic issues led Shankar Thakur to take the extreme step. They said an investigation from different other angles was under way to reach a conclusion.

Incidents of suicide by individuals and couples are common in the desert region of Tharparkar but the fresh incident would be somewhat rare if it is established that the man has really killed himself after poisoning wife and three children.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024