Five of family from Salem found dead in parked car

PUDUKOTTAI: Five members of a family from Salem were found dead in a car parked outside a building near Namanasamudram on the Trichy - Karaikudi National Highway on Wednesday morning.The deceased have been identified as Manikandan, 50, his wife Nithya, 48, his mother Saroja, 70, daughter Niharika, 22, and son Dheeran, 20. They were residents of State Bank Colony in Salem district.Local people found the car parked in front of a mutt at Ilankudipatti around 9am and informed police.Namanasamudram police attached to the Pudukottai district police recovered the dead bodies and sent them to Pudukkottai Government Medical College Hospital for postmortem.Going by the preliminary investigation, it was suspected that they poisoned themselves. The reason for the suicide was yet to be ascertained.Manikandan was into copper and other metal business. He reportedly faced debts in his partnership business recently.Police were investigating if he had undergone pressure from money lenders or if he had faced pressure from his business partners.