Second suicide note also mentions property dispute

JAISALMER: The Bikaner police on Friday found a second suicide note related to the deaths of five members of a family-a middle-aged couple and their three children. Their bodies, which were found in their rented house in Bikaner's Antyodaya Nagar in Mukta Prasad police station area on Thursday afternoon, were handed over to kin after postmortem on Friday. The Bikaner SP said that based on the postmortem report, cause and time of the deaths will be known.

All five deceased-Hanuman Soni, 45, his wife Vimla, 40, sons Mohit, 18, and Rishi, 16, and daughter Gudiya, 14-were cremated on Friday.

Police recovered the second suicide note from Hanuman Soni's shirt pocket. The contents of the second suicide note were similar to those written in the first one found near the body of Soni's wife Vimla. Police said that in his suicide note Soni blamed his brother and sister-in-law and two brothers-in-law for the suicides.

From the two suicide notes found, the main reason for the suicides seems to be financial problems related to a property dispute and unreturned loans. Bikaner SP Tejaswini Gautam said that in the suicide note found with Hanuman Soni, he accused his brother and sister-in-law of cheating and grabbing Rs 50 lakh during a property division. He also accused both his brothers-in-law of not returning the money he had lent them, due to which his financial problems increased and he had no other option but to commit suicide.

The SP said that both husband and wife seemed to be having a dispute with their families over property. Both were also not in touch with their respective families, she said. Police found the frist suicide note written by Vimla Soni from the spot on Thursday in which she alleged cheating in property division by her in-laws, brother and sister-in-law, and her brothers. She accused them of cheating her of Rs 50 lakh. She mentioned that her husband had lent money to her in-laws which they did not return. She also accused her own parents of not giving any money despite knowing of her financial problems.

The deceased family was residing at Lunkaransar but after selling their house they came to Bikaner and were staying in a rented house for the last 7-8 years, the SP said.

Gautam said that police will continue their investigation after getting reports from FSL and other agencies. In the postmortem report there was no mark of injury on anybody and they had not been hanged by someone after killing them, she said.

Neighbours of the deceased said Hanuman did not have any contact with them and never joined any social programmes and never spoke to neighbours. Vimla also never used to meet the women from her neighbourhood.