Krishnagar, Oct. 28: A 35-year-old housewife committed suicide here today following a row with her husband and teenager son over whether he needed an English tutor.

Sithi Roy had refused to allow Saurav, a Class VIII student of Krishnagar High School, 85 km from Calcutta, a third tutor. He has two tutors taking care of math, science, history and geography.

Police said there was tension in the family over the past week as Saurav kept nagging Sithi. Last evening, she slapped her son several times when he defied her instruction and sat to watch TV.

Saurav’s father Ashish, a teacher of a local basic training school, became angry on returning home and hearing that he was slapped. “How stupid of you. Every student in our town has a separate tutor for English,” he told his wife and left the house apparently in search of a tutor. Feeling vindicated, Saurav also teased his mother on this.

Sithi could not bear the humiliation. Saurav was the first to see his mother hanging from the ceiling fan.