Hyderabad, October 13: Unable any longer to endure the anxiety inflicted by a fickle and callous job market in the wake of the economic recession, a techie couple residing at Dundigal today killed their three-year-old son before taking their lives.
In the suicide notes left behind, the couple, however, held no one responsible for their death.
The tragedy was enacted in Flat No 101 at Sai Maruti Residency, Nizampet, under Dundigal police station limits, and the ill-fated trio were TLSV Rama Rao (34), an IBM software engineer in the city, his wife, Neelima (28), a former employee of Satyam Computers, and their son, Nitish (3).
The couple, who married five years ago, had come to the city one year back from Bangalore, where they worked as software engineers in separate IT companies.
According to police, Neelima had to quit her job due to the economic recession which saw many IT companies resorting to cost-cutting measures. Police found in the house three suicide notes, one written by Rama Rao, another by Neelima and the third jointly.
It is suspected that first letter was written by Rama Rao. In it he stated that he was vexed with the way “circumstances” had taken over their lives.
And Neelima said in her note that she could not live without her husband.
She also expressed regret that she could not become “a good daughter, mother, wife or a daughter- in-law”, Dundigal police inspector Ramachandrudu said.
In another letter, signed jointly by the couple, they stated that none was responsible for their deaths.
“We are taking away the life of our son as there would be no one to take care of him after our death,” they said in the letter.
Rama Rao left behind a cheque for Rs 25,000 in the name of his father, Venkataramaiah. He also said that the Rs 1 lakh in his bank account be handed over to his parents.
Police said Rama Rao was found hanging in the master bedroom and his son’s body lay on the bed.
“Though there are no visible injuries on the boy’s body, we suspect that he might have been smothered to death before the couple hanged themselves,” police said.
Neelima’s body was found hanging from the ceiling fan in another bedroom.
The murder-suicides came to light today morning after the watchman of the apartment peeped in through the window after failing to get a response to repeated knocks.
–Agencies–