Three of family attempt suicide over ‘financial crisis’ in Cuttack; Couple dies, son critical

Cuttack: The elderly couple, who along with their elder son attempted suicide allegedly over ‘financial crisis’ in Cuttack City on August 2, reportedly breathed their lasts while undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital.

While the 85-year-old man, identified as Uma Charan Panda, died yesterday his wife Sarojini (70) breathed her last today. Their son Soumya Ranjan (44) is still under treatment and his condition is stated to be critical.

Notably, the trio was living in a rented house in CDA Sector-6 under the Market Nagar police station limits of the City for the past two years. Uma Charan is a retired advocate and Soumya Ranjan was working as a software engineer in a private company at Bangalore. However, Soumya was staying with his parents for the last four months after being laid off from his job.

As the family was undergoing acute financial crisis due to which they were unable to pay rent of Rs 15,000 since the last three months. They trios were allegedly so disturbed by the ‘financial crisis’ that they locked the doors of the house from inside and consumed some poisonous substance with an aim to end their lives.

After finding the doors locked from inside since a long time, the owner of the house along with the locals informed the Market Nagar police about the matter.

Later, a team of cops reached the house and broke open the doors. Soon, the trios were rushed to the government-run hospital for treatment. However, Uma and his wife Sarojini died while their son is still under medication.

Meanwhile, police have started an investigation into the matter.