Tripura: ‘Starvation’ Forces Family Of Four To Commit Suicide

A family of four committed suicide in West Tripura’s Barakathal district by consuming poison, police said on November 24, Sunday.

The villagers suspected that the couple was the victim of a massive financial crisis. Due to lack of employment and food, the couple poisoned their children and hung themselves to a tree beside their home. The police found their bodies on Saturday and have sent them for postmortem.

“Prima facie, it seems 40-year-old Paresh Tanti and his 36-year-old wife Sajani had poisoned their five-year-old daughter Rupali and 11-year-old son Bishal and then hung themselves to a tree near their house in Sanyasipara village on Friday night,” Superintendent of Police Manik Das said.

“Tanti had taken loans from two financial institutions and was unable to pay the instalments. He had also bought a piece of land, but could not obtain the deed papers. We are investigating the case,” Das added.

According to the report by Dailyhunt, in the 2017-2018 financial year, he (Tanti) worked for 25 days whereas in 2018-19 he worked for 76 man-days and this year he has already worked for over 50 days.

The incident brought the political parties into the blame game as CPI(M) and Congress in the state accused the ruling BJP of lack of measures to generate employment in Tripura. The CPI(M) issued a statement on Sunday alleging that the incident happened due to lack of employment and basic needs for survival.

As the party claimed that the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) beneficiaries of that area remained away from the facilities and it never reached them due to which poverty has risen considerably.

“Paresh Tanti had borrowed ₹80,000 from financial institutions but was unable to pay the instalments due to lack of work. On the other hand, because of the absence of earnings, his children and wife remained without food,” the CPI(M) statement further added.

However, the State Law Minister Nath said that the political parties claim that shortage of work and food caused the deaths is not true. “The family also holds a BPL-ration card and rations were provided to the family,” he told the media.

Speaking with reports, former chief minister Manik Sarkar said, “It is very unfortunate that they died due to poverty and utter desperation. They had no works to run their family and also they were deep in debt.”