Mumbai: Day after Cuffe Parade family suicide, 4 from Bandra sign death pact

Barely a day after the decomposed bodies of a family that committed suicide was found at their home in Fishermens Colony near Cuffe Parade the city received another shocker after a family of four from Bandra East killed themselves by consuming rat poisonAccording to officials the family residing at Government Colony in Kherwadi for the last 30 years was driven to suicide as they were unable to make arrangements for Rs 15 lakh for a flat in Panvel which they wanted to buyOn Friday the Patels were found hanging from the ceiling of their Cuffe Parade home In their suicide letter the couple mentioned the tragic death of their young daughter a few months ago from cancer and the extreme poverty they were facing and frequent disagreements with neighbours in the colonyTragedy unfoldsThe deceased have been identified as Rajesh Bhingare 47 who works as a peon in the office of BJP minister Dhananjay Munde in Mantralaya his wife Ashwini 45 and sons Tushar 23 a hotel management student and Gaurang 19 who was in Std 12 Incidentally Rajesh and Ashwini Bhingare were to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary todayThe incident came to light when one of the neighbours had gone to meet Ashwini on Saturday afternoon According to police officials Ashwini ran a small flour mill out of her residence The neighbour who went to collect her ground packet of flour had tried knocking on the door repeatedly When she received no response she became suspicious As the door was slightly ajar the neighbour peeped in only to find all the members of the family lying motionless on the bed They were frothing from their mouths She immediately alerted the rest who then called the policeThe Kherwadi Police rushed the family to Sion Hospital where they were declared dead on arrival Officials said prima facie it appears that the family had consumed rat poison A suicide note written in Hindi was recovered from the house where the family claimed they were committing suicide due to financial stress and that nobody was responsible for their death The Kherwadi police have registered an accidental death report ADRThe grieving relatives of Bhingares outside their home in Bandra East PicPradeep DhivarFinancial stressThe incident is starkly similar to that of the Cuffe Parade family Praveen Patel 40 his wife Reena 35 and their son Prabhu 11 that also committed suicide due to financial stress In their suicide note the Patels had mentioned the tragic death of their sixyearold daughter Pratibha who died of cancer a few months ago the extreme poverty they were facing and frequent disagreements with neighbours in the colony They also blamed around 60 people for their deathMeanwhile relatives of the Bhingares were unaware of the financial condition of the family and were shocked that they all had agreed to the suicide pact The family was stressed as they did not have a permanent home said an official with the Kherwadi Police on condition of anonymityVaishali Sonawane Rajeshs sister who lives in Vakola said Rajesh and Ashwini were supposed to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary on Sunday and we were all planning to have a small gettogether This incident has shaken us all Tushar was trying to get a work visa for a job overseas None of them ever spoke about any mental or financial pressureRajeshs second sister Bharti Bhingare was in complete shock She spent 15 days every month with the family and was still not aware of her brothers financial condition I have lost everything They never told me anything she saidParthasarathi Mondal Social scientist School of development Studies TISSMahas battle with suicides According to Central government data released last year Maharashtra had the highest incidences of suicides at 16970 in the year 2015 followed by 15777 suicides in Tamil Nadu 14602 in West Bengal 10786 in Karnataka and 10293 in Madhya PradeshDr Kersi Chavda practising psychiatrist and a consultant at Hinduja National Hospital pointed out that both the Cuffe Parade and Bandra suicides were not suicide pacts but suicidemurders where the parents who wanted to kill themselves also dragged their children along because they thought nobody would look after them These kinds of suicides are almost invariably because of severe depression and in some rare cases a psychotic set of parents The depression could be related to a number of factors but ultimately it happens when the individual has fallen into the depths of despair and starts feeling that the spouse and the children wont survive without himher either The entire viewpoint is jaundiced but this is one way they rationalise Chavda addedSocial scientist Parthasarathi Mondal a faculty member at the Centre for Social Theory School of Development Studies TISS said that while it was too preliminary to comment on these cases if one took a specific look at them the immediate precipitating factor was personal mattersA general social circumstance and policy decisions that perpetuate a feeling of not being able to exercise control increases the propensity for such drastic decisions There is an existential paralysis There are several ways of getting out of this but this one way is not to be glorified Unfortunately policymakers dont see this as an issue he saidWith inputs by Benita FernandoAlso readThree of family found dead in south Mumbais Cuffe Parade areaCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates