Parents commit suicide, as son elopes with a married woman

BENGALURU: On Wednesday night a 52-year-old farmer and his wife committed suicide at Halli Gowdana Doddi in Ramanagara district, which is located around 90 km south of Bengaluru, as his son had eloped with a married woman.

Siddaraju and his wife S Sakamma, were found dead when they entered the couple’s house on Thursday morning. The couple have appeared, prima facie, and have consumed poison, said the police.

The elder son of the couple, S Manu, who is 32 years old, a tractor driver, had eloped with a 29-year-old homemaker last week. “Family members said Manu and the woman were in a relationship before she got married to another man in 2016. Manu is a bachelor. Manu and the woman wanted to get married but the families were opposed to the idea because they belonged to different castes,” a police officer said.

Manu still continued to meet the woman even after she had got married, and they ran away from the village last week. The families initially hoped for them to return in a day or two, but the relatives of Manu had arrived at Manu’s house on Wednesday and questioned his parents if they had any idea where the couple had gone.

“Siddaraju and Sakamma told them they had no idea where the two were. But the woman’s relatives were angry and refused to take that for an answer. They abused the couple and accused them of concocting a tale after helping Manu elope with the woman,” the police officer said.

Police have sent the dead bodies of the parents for postmortem to probe the reason for their death.