Elderly couple, son found hanging in Garia flat

KOLKATA: The decomposed bodies of an elderly couple-retired engineer -Swapan Maitra (75) and his wife Aparna (68)-and their son, Suman Raj (39), were found hanging in three separate rooms in their third-floor flat in Garia on Wednesday. This came six days after Suman had gone 'Live' on Facebook, saying he was being harassed and threatened by some neighbours and they were being forced to take a "decision" that day.

According to neighbours, the Maitras were last seen on Friday, the day Suman made the video. On Wednesday, neighbours of the five-storey building called the police on getting a foul smell from the Maitras' flat. Police broke open the wooden door to find the three hanging from the ceiling fans of two bedrooms and the drawing room. No suicide note was found but going by the content of the 20-minute-22-second video, police are checking whether it was a suicide pact or the son had hanged the parents before hanging himself in the drawing room.

Till Wednesday evening, the video uploaded at 1.16am on Friday had five comments, 23 reactions and 1,400 views, most of them came after the news of the deaths surfaced.

The family had moved into the flat around one-and-a-half years ago. Relatives said Suman was unemployed and the family depended financially on Aparna's brother, Debasis Bose, who had last visited the family on December 28. "They looked fine then and I could not imagine they would meet with such a fate," said Bose. "My brother-in-law worked at a private firm in Dhanbad and didn't have much savings. They lived under financial distress. Ever since my brother-in-law had a bypass two years ago, he and my sister had limited their outdoor activities."

Next-door neighbour Swarnalata Patra said, "Their door had been shut since Saturday. They mostly kept to themselves, so I didn't bother. But from Tuesday, I started getting a stench from the flat."

Suman had said in the video that some neighbours had threatened them while he and his father were discussing some comments on a Youtube video. "They had overheard us and began to threaten us. I was afraid and none could help us. In the building where we stayed, we were ostrasized... I never wished for anyone's harm but they are planning to kill us," Suman had said in the video. But Surajit Pradhan said, "Why would someone disturb or harass them? I have seen the video. I think what he said was his imagination. None here has harassed or threatened them," said Pradhan.

In the video, Suman had even sought help from the state government, saying "madam ektu dekhben".

Baruipur DSP Mohit Molla said they sent the bodies for post-mortem. "We are scanning the video and speaking to relatives," said an officer.



Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.