(Top) The Konnagar house where the Moitras lived, and Lava, where they tried to commit suicide. Pictures by Krishna Chandra Mishra and Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Kalimpong/Calcutta, March 12: A family of three trav-elled over 600km from their home in Hooghly to Lava near Kalimpong apparently to commit suicide.

The 65-year-old mother succeeded, but her two children are battling death.

Kalpana Moitra, a widow, Jyotirmoy, 30, and Anusuya, 29, had checked into a hotel in Lava on March 8.

Its employees found them lying unconscious in their room last evening.

The three were taken to Kalimpong Subdivisional Hospital, 35km downhill, where Kalpana died two hours later.

Police said they had taken sleeping pills. The siblings are not yet out of danger and will be under observation for the next couple of days.

Before leaving Konnagar, 25km from Calcutta, on February 28, Kalpana had handed over the keys of her rented apartment to her landlord and taken back the Rs 5,000 she had paid as advance.

“She told me that the furniture, utensils and the gas oven would be taken away by a rickshaw-puller later. The family left in a private car with two shopping bags and a suitcase,” said Ranendra Nath Ghosh, the landlord.

The police are trying to find out where the family was between February 28 and March 8.

Ghosh said Kalpana had told him they would visit a relative in Bally, Howrah, about 10km away.

The police found Ghosh’s address in the hotel room. The family had told the reception that they were from Konnagar.

Ghosh said: “The Moitras owned a flat in nearby Debpara. They sold it off in 2005.”

He added that financial distress could be a reason for the suicide pact.

Kalimpong additional superintendent of police K.B. Dorji said Jyotirmoy appeared to be mentally unstable.

Ghosh said he was a good student and had graduated with chemistry. His sister apparently dropped out of college midway.

Their father was a chemist in a pharmaceutical company.

On Monday, the Moitras had cleared their hotel bill and left for Rishap, a popular tourist spot. However, they returned in the evening and checked into the same room.

“Before leaving, they had told the staff to divide among themselves the belongings in the suitcase they were leaving behind,” said Dawa Lama, the secretary of the Lava Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association.

Kalimpong police mana- ged to get in touch with Kal- pana’s brother Kanak Sanyal. “He told us he was in Guwa-hati and would try to be here at the earliest,” police officer Dorji said.