Family of 4 attempts suicide, child dies

BANGALORE: A suicide pact by a family of four went awry on Monday night — while the daughter died, her brother and parents survived. However, they are in a critical condition.
Burdened by debts, the family members consumed food laced with poison.
DCP (North) Sandeep Patil identified them as Kumarappa, 45, Kusuma, 40, Prajwal, 17, and Sridevi, 10. Kumarappa is undergoing treatment at Baptist Hospital, while Kusuma and Prajwal are in another private hospit
Kumarappa, who ran Sridevi milk parlour a few metres from their house in Chamundinagar in RT Nagar, incurred loans while trying to expand his business.He also started a chit business.
"The milk business wasn't enough to sustain the family, which led to Kumarappa defaulting on repayment of his loans. His chit business also sank when people didn't pay him. The losses in both businesses drove him to this," said Kanthamma, one of the neighbours.
Police said they recovered vermicelli upma mixed with poison from the house, and are not yet certain if the children knew about the pact or unknowingly ate the upma.
The incident came to light around 4am, when milk suppliers came to Kumarappa's milk parlour. When he failed to open the store and take in stock, the suppliers grew impatient and drove up to Kumarappa's house and honked several times. One of them walked up to the house and peeped through the window, and saw the family lying unconscious.
They called the police control room, and an ambulance was dispatched to the house. All four were shifted to a nearby hospital, where young Sridevi was declared dead by doctors.