Poverty drives man to kill son

from The Times of India

KOLKATA: Unable to cope with poverty, Rabi Chakraborty, a 42-year-old man, strangled his son and then hanged himself from the ceiling.

The incident occurred at Kestopur's Naskarpara area in North 24-Parganas on Sunday.

Police found a suicide note in Rabi's diary addressed to his wife.

"I was getting old and could not find a way out of the financial crunch. I left you at your father's house as it would have been very tough for you to see what I was about to do," he wrote in the note.

"Prima facie, it appears that Rabi killed his 12-year-old son before committing suicide as his financial constraints had pushed him to the edge," said a police officer. Both the bodies were sent for post-mortem.

Rabi had been living with his wife and son in a rented ground-floor room of one Nitai Naskar's house at Naskarpara for the past five years. He was a private tutor and earlier, also worked in a book store on a part-time basis. His son, Babu, who was a Class V student of a local school near Salt Lake, was not mentally sound.

However, of late, Rabi had lost his part-time job. Since then, Rabi's financial condition deteriorated steadily. He had not been able to pay the house rent for the last two months. He was also worried as he had taken loans from different places. The family had another house at Beliaghata.

On Saturday afternoon, Rabi went to his in-laws' house with his son and wife. He asked his wife to spend a day there and returned home with Babu. He even went out for a stroll with Babu in the evening.

Around 9 am on Sunday, Rabi's landlord Nitai Naskar went to collect rent from Paras Giri, who lives in the room next to Rabi's. Nitai then knocked on Rabi's door, but did not get any response. He then peeped through one of the windows and saw Rabi hanging from the ceiling. Local residents broke open the door that was locked from inside and found Babu lying dead on the bed. They informed Baguiati police immediately. Police found strangulation marks on Babu's throat.

"Rabi was a cordial person and had good relations with everyone in the locality. The incident has come as a complete shock for us," said Abhijit Ghosh, a neighbour.