Chennai: Mounting debt drives Anna Nagar couple, 2 teen kids to suicide

CHENNAI: A 52-year-old doctor, his lawyer wife, and two teenage sons were found dead inside their apartment in Anna Nagar on Thursday. Preliminary investigations have suggested that the family was facing mounting debts, which may have forced them to take the extreme step.

The deceased have been identified as Dr G Balamurugan, his wife B Sumathi (47), and their sons, B Jaswant Kumar (18) and B Lingesh Kumar (16).

Balamurugan ran a CT scan centre in Anna Nagar, while Sumathi was a lawyer. Jaswant recently finished class 12 and was preparing for his NEET examination, while his younger brother was a class 10 student.

The incident came to light after their domestic help alerted their driver to check on them after her repeated calls to the couple remained unanswered. Early on Thursday, the driver Ramachandran reached their apartment and pressed the calling bell. When no one answered the door, he alerted the security guard and broke open the door.

They found the doctor dead in one of the bedrooms. The men then alerted the police control room after which a team rushed to the scene and found all the family members dead in the house.

All four bodies were moved to the Kilpauk Government Medical College hospital for postmortem. Senior police officers conducted inquiries with the neighbours and the relatives of the deceased and learnt that the family had mounting debts, running to several crores.