Domestic help kills self at Nims creche

HYDERABAD: A domestic help of a doctor couple working at the Nizam���s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) committed suicide at the hospital���s creche on Wednesday. Six children were sleeping in another room when the incident happened post lunch.
Swathi, 19, joined as a full-time domestic help-cum-nanny to take care of11-month-old son of Dr T Srinivas Chakravarthy and Dr Ripi Kapoor who stay in Adarsh Nagar, six months ago.On the pretext of going to sleep in another room, she hanged herself with her stole at around 3.15 pm. She shut the door but did not bolt it.
Creche in-charge T Madhumati was sitting in the front room when the incident occurred. It was the cleaner of the creche E Padma who first noticed the body. The creche has two rooms, a dining hall and a front room where the in-charge sits.
���I cleaned a part of the place and my baby started crying. After feeding her, she slept. I wanted to make her sleep in the other room, I opened the door and saw her legs hanging and I shrieked,��� a tense Padma said.
Madhumati said that the creche has 15 enrolments though the children were brought in different shifts and at any time there were five children. ���Their usual practise was to close the door and sleep and I did not sense any trouble when the same thing happened today,��� Madhumati said.
After Dr Kapoor fed the baby, finished lunch and left, Swathi went to the deserted room and closed the door, she added.
Dr Ripi Kapoor and Swathi usually had lunch together at the creche. However, on Wednesday, Swathi did not take lunch. ���She was a trained ANM and attended an interview at a hospital in Suryapet, but did not qualify. Since the time she returned on Sept. 9, she was depressed. She had also given us notice that she would be leaving the job from October 10 and asked us to search for another help,��� Chakravarthy, who is on a fellowship in cardiac & anaesthetic surgery at Nims, told ���TOI.���
Swathi���s parents, daily wage workers residing at RTC crossroads, wanted her to join a private hospital as she was a trained ANM. However, she was happy working with the doctor couple. ���She told us that if she does not get the job, she will continue with us,��� Ripi Kapoor, an oncologist, said.
Punjagutta inspector M Malla Reddy said the reasons for suicide were not known and that the body has been shifted to the Gandhi Hospital mortuary.