Nirmal and Arpita Chakraborty on their wedding day

Hounded by recovery agents and mortified by his failure to repay friends, relatives and neighbours, Nirmal Chakraborty committed suicide with his wife and daughter, according to police.

The garment trader, his wife Arpita and five-year-old daughter Srishti had biryani for dinner on Saturday night before the father and the child allegedly consumed poison. A neighbour found their bodies in their Kasba house on Sunday morning. Arpita’s body was floating in a water body, about 50 metres from the house.

Investigators found a half-empty bottle of poison in the house. They also found a syringe and three empty biryani packets bought from a local eatery. “We have sent the food samples for tests. We have also seized the bottle and the syringe,” said an officer.

“Nirmal and his daughter died of poisoning while Arpita drowned. We don’t know whether she had also taken poison. Everything will be clear after we get the post-mortem reports,” said Ajey Ranade, the South 24-Parganas police superintendent.

He added that the investigators are mainly looking into Nirmal’s financial condition. He had borrowed a huge sum for his business but failed to repay the amount.

Local moneylenders and recovery agents of banks were hounding him after he defaulted on repayment, said another officer.

The police have recorded statements of relatives, neighbours and business associates of Nirmal, some of whom had also lent him money.

The death of the three has shocked neighbours. “We had no clue that they would do something so drastic. Nirmal was amiable and interacted with everyone in the locality. His daughter, too, was very lively,” said Pradeep Mukherjee, who lives next door.

Nirmal’s business may have floundered after Puja last year. “We saw customers buy garments from him before Puja last year. This year, however, we did not see anybody,” added Mukherjee.

Lipika Mukherjee, another neighbour, said Arpita used to visit her house frequently. “But she never spoke about her financial problems. I learnt that they were facing financial problems after their death.”