Mumbai, Oct. 22: A 34-year-old man smothered his seven-month pregnant wife to death with a cushion and then hanged himself from a fan after losing his job and his savings on the stock market.

This is the fourth incident of suicide in the last 10 days that has been triggered by the economic meltdown.

Police sources said Parag Tanna had left a suicide note addressed to his mother in which he confessed to killing wife Neha, also 34, and himself because he was under “heavy financial duress”.

“My parents sold their house to fund my upbringing and education. I have failed to buy a house for the family. I am tired of living in a rented place. I do not know what future I can gift to my child,” he wrote in the suicide note, the police said.

The incident happened last evening when Indubehn, who stayed with son Parag at Sai Raj Nagar in Iraniwadi in suburban Kandivali, had gone to a temple nearby.

“Parag and Neha were home when she left. When she returned around 9pm, nobody opened the door despite repeated knocks. She called the neighbours and family members who stay close by. They broke open the door and found the bodies,” said inspector K. Jaiswal of Kandivali police station.

Parag had lost his job at a stock-trading firm a month ago. Having invested in stocks when the markets were on a roll last year and failing to recover his losses after the slump, he killed himself in desperation, police sources said.

“As the sensex crashed, so did Parag’s dreams. When his wife got pregnant, he started getting desperate. He has been depressed since he lost his job but did not talk much about his financial condition. We got to know all this from his mother,” Jaiswal, who is investigating the case, said.

The police said Neha had, for the past few weeks, been staying at her parents’ place in Borivali because of her pregnancy.

“But Parag called her back. She reached their Kandivali apartment on Tuesday morning. By evening she was dead,” Jaiswal said.

“He is the only son of his parents, born after four sisters. The sisters are all married and stay close by. The mother is inconsolable. His father is no more. The family originally hails from Gujarat.”

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The police do not suspect any foul play.

Parag and Neha’s deaths are fourth in the series of suicides that began on October 13.

On that day, a Mumbai brother and sister in their late forties committed suicide after killing their parents.

A joint suicide note said they had taken the extreme step as they were unable to tackle recovery agents hounding them for dues run up on 72 credit cards.

Five days later in Hyderabad, 30-year-old stock trader Upendra set his wife, two-year-old child and himself ablaze because of financial problems.

Yesterday, 26-year-old Jayanta Saha hanged himself in Agartala after losing money on the stock market. When he found that the Rs 18 lakh he had invested had come down to half, he tried to recoup his losses. But an error he made while buying new shares drove him to suicide.