Six of Nawada family die by suicide: ‘Last I spoke with my sister, she said everything was over’

Air was heavy with grief in Mirzapur locality of Nawada town in Bihar on Friday, when bodies of six members of a debt-ridden family, who had allegedly committed suicide under harassment from money lenders, were taken for cremation.

According to police, the 55-year-old fruit seller, his wife and four children had consumed poison on Wednesday night and died on Thursday.  

The last rites were performed by Amit Gupta, the lone surviving child of the fruit seller who rushed back home from Delhi after hearing the tragic news. Amit, in his 20s, works with a private company in the national capital.

“The cruel money lenders have snatched away my family from me. They constantly threatened my father with dire consequences. My father paid them a lot, but it was not easy to pay the arbitrary interest rate. My father must have taken this decision to end life after exhausting all options,” Amit told reporters.

Amit said the last time he talked to his sister was when everything was over. “She said everything was over as all of them had consumed poison,” he said.

Talking to reporters near the cremation site, Amit said one of the money lenders, known as Manish Singh alias Tiger, had threatened to abduct my brother and sister. “I always suggested my father to come to Delhi where we could work together,” he said.   

According to police, the fruit seller was being harassed by money lenders who had given him about ₹12 lakh five years.  

In a suicide note written on November 8, which has been recovered by police, one of the family members wrote that they had already paid two to three times the principal amount as interest, the police said.

The suicide note named Manish Singh, Vikas Singh, Vijay Singh, Pramod alias Tuntun Singh, Dr Pankaj Sinha, and Ranjit Singh, all residents of New Area in Nawada, and accused them of torturing the family to pay the rest of the interest amount, the police said.

It was immediately not clear why the family took the loan.  

Nawada superintendent of police (SP) Dr Gaurav Mangla told HT that an FIR (first information report) has been lodged against six named accused with Town police station on the basis of the statement of the fruit seller’s brother Sambhu Gupta.

“One of them, Pramod Singh, has been arrested and is being questioned. We are conducting raids to arrest the rest,” the SP said.