Grocer Lallan Sao’s house at Danapur where the trader and his wife Sobha laced their food and that of their four children with poison. While three of the children and Sobha died, Lallan and their eldest son survived. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, Sept. 22: Unable to repay a loan taken from a credit society, a trader and his wife chose to end their anguish by serving dinner laced with poison to their four children before having the same food themselves last night.

Lallan Sao, a 47-year-old grocer from the Maida Toli area under Danapur police station on the outskirts of Patna, is at present battling for life at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). His wife, Sobha Devi, sons Bholu (7) and Dholu (4), and daughter Bunni (6) died. The couple’s eldest son, Golu (12), is also admitted to PMCH in a serious condition. Police said they did not find any suicide note in the house of Lallan.

Besides having a grocery shop in the ground floor of his four-storey house under construction, Lallan owned a number of autorickshaws, which he had rented out. He was also associated with a local credit scheme called Businessman Committee. The scheme involved a group of local traders, who would invest money in the corpus and could borrow whenever they needed. The repayment mode was in the form of monthly instalments.

A resident of Maida Toli said Lallan had taken a hefty loan from the committee, but could not pay back the money on time. Nobody could, however, confirm the exact amount that the trader had borrowed.

A milkman first had a whiff of the Saos’ misfortune when he knocked on their door around 9am today. “Lallan and his family used to wake up by 8am. But when no one opened the door despite repeated taps on their door by the milkman, he alerted the residents of the nearby houses,” a neighbour of Lallan told The Telegraph.

“We rushed to Lallan’s house and found that the generator was still on inside. The area is facing an acute power scarcity these days. We tried to wake them up. But when there was no response, we informed the police,” he added.

Within minutes, a contingent of police arrived and broke open the door. “The sight inside was scary. We saw Lallan, his wife and their children lying still with plates of rice and pulses in front of them. Froth was oozing out of the children’s mouths. The policemen found that Lallan, Golu and Bholu were still breathing. All six were sent to the Danapur-based government hospital,” the neigh- bour said.

Doctors in the Danapur hospital said Sobha, Bholu, Dholu and Bunni were brought dead. “Bholu died while being taken to the hospital,” the neighbour added. The doctors referred Lallan and Golu to PMCH.

Ranjit Kumar, another neighbour of the Saos, said he had last seen Lallan around 11pm yesterday when the former had gone to the trader’s shop to buy a mosquito repellent coil. “Lallan was then getting ready to close his shop. But he looked sad. After handing me the coil, he told me to leave the shop immediately or else I will also be dead. I was shocked to hear this but I didn’t argue with him. Lallan was known for his strange ways of talking,” Kumar said.

Nearly an hour later, the neighbours said they heard heated arguments from Lallan’s house. “During the day, Lallan had sent Golu to take Rs 500 from a person. The boy got the money, but apparently spent Rs 100. Lallan was furious with Golu and reprimanded him. It’s obvious that the family was facing a financial crisis,” an officer at the Danapur police station told The Telegraph.

“We could hear that Lallan was scolding Golu. Sobha, too, shouted at her husband for beating up the boy. After that, all of them were silent,” one of the neighbours said.

Today, Lallan’s relatives and friends rushed to the Danapur hospital where the bodies of his three children and wife were taken for autopsy. “I don’t know what happened. I live in Patna and sell fruits. I used to visit Lallan once in three months. I never realised that there was any trouble in the family,” said Raghu Sao, Lallan’s father-in-law.

The police are waiting for the autopsy reports. “We have sent samples of food found at Lallan’s house to the forensic science laboratory. We are yet to record the two survivors’ statements. Both of them are in a critical condition. We are also talking to their relatives,” a police officer said.