Chandigarh woman, son booked for abetment after father-in-law ‘commits suicide’ - Hindustan Times
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Chandigarh woman, son booked for abetment after father-in-law ‘commits suicide’

By, Chandigarh
Oct 30, 2020 10:05 PM IST

Victim’s advocate son initially tried a cover-up; murder not ruled out yet

A woman and her son have been booked for abetment to suicide after her 74-year-old father-in-law died in mysterious circumstances at their house in Sector 22, Chandigarh Police said on Friday.

Family says the 74-year-old man was found hanging from the ceiling in his room. The cloth used to make the noose has not been recovered.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Family says the 74-year-old man was found hanging from the ceiling in his room. The cloth used to make the noose has not been recovered.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The case has been registered on the complaint of the deceased’s daughter and on the basis of a suicide note found in his shirt’s pocket.

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It has also come to light that the family initially tried to conceal the alleged suicide that took place on Thursday. The elderly man’s postmortem report is awaited, and police have not yet ruled out murder.

The victim’s daughter-in-law, aged 41, is a bank clerk, and grandson, 21, has studied till Class 12 and is preparing for competitive exams. While the woman has been sent to judicial custody, her son will be produced in court on Saturday.

They have been booked under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the police station in Sector 17.

The victim’s son is an advocate. All names are being concealed as it is a case of suicide.

Family told doctors he had breathing problem

According to police, the alleged suicide took place on Thursday morning. They got the information in the evening.

The family had initially taken the body to the civil hospital in Sector 22 and informed the doctors that the elderly man had been having difficulty in breathing and collapsed.

Not suspecting any foul play, doctors reportedly declared the man “brought dead” and handed over the body to the family, who brought it back to home.

It was only after the victim’s daughter arrived from Delhi that she suspected foul play and called police.

On reaching the house and quizzing the son, police were told that the man was found hanging from the ceiling in his room around 8:30am.

With the help of other family members and tenants, he claimed to have removed the body and rushed it to the civil hospital, where his father was declared brought dead and the body handed over back to him.

Suicide note recovered from shirt’s pocket

While shifting the body to Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, in the evening, police recovered a small piece of paper from the shirt’s pocket.

Written in Hindi, apparently by the victim, it stated that he was very sad and his daughter-in-law and grandson were responsible for his death, said a police official privy to the probe.

Police said the man’s daughter has told them that he had not been keeping well, and the two suspects used to constantly taunt him for being a liability.

Postmortem report awaited for further action

Meanwhile, police are suspecting further foul play in the case, as questions remain on the family’s claim that the victim was found hanging from the ceiling.

A police official investigating the matter said the cloth allegedly used by the victim to hang himself has not been recovered. Police had asked the family to hand it over to them, but they failed to do so. Search of the house, too, led to no recovery.

The body has been kept at the mortuary in GMSH, and its postmortem will be conducted after receiving the Covid-19 test report. “The real cause of death will be ascertained after we receive the postmortem report. Further action will be taken on its basis,” said Ram Rattan, station house officer, Sector 17.

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