New Delhi, March 1: An officer with India’s external intelligence agency RAW is suspected to have bludgeoned his wife and two children to death before committing suicide, in what appeared to be a fallout of a marriage gone “bitter”, police said today.

Ananya Chakraborty, 52, was found hanging from the ceiling inside his official quarters in south Delhi. His schoolteacher wife Jayashree, 45, son Arnab, 17, and daughter Disha, 11, lay dead in the bedroom.

No suicide note was found and police sources said it seemed Chakraborty killed his wife, who was from Calcutta, and the children with a hammer before hanging himself. A bloodstained hammer lay beside their bodies.

“A preliminary probe has revealed that the couple used to have bitter fights regularly and their marriage was on the rocks. Chakraborty was found hanging from the ceiling while Jayashree, Arnab and Disha had severe blunt injuries on their head and were lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom,” said an officer of Defence Colony police station.

“It seems Chakraborty murdered his wife and children in a fit of rage. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem,” said another officer.

Defence Colony police said Jayashree had four days ago lodged a complaint of torture against her husband, an inspector-rank field officer with the Research and Analysis Wing. “Acting on the complaint we went to their house and spoke to Chakraborty and settled the matter,” a police officer said. “Jayashree had agreed to withdraw the complaint.”

Jayashree taught at the prestigious Lady Irwin School in Defence Colony. Arnab was a student of Class XI in Kendriya Vidyalaya. Disha studied in Class VII in the same school.

“Jayashree taught social studies and had joined the school two months ago. She was from Calcutta, while Chakraborty was from Assam,” the officer said.

S.P. Singh, a neighbour and a junior RAW officer, said he had met Chakraborty and his wife five days ago when they were returning after donating blood for a friend’s mother. “It is a shocking incident,” he said.

The couple and their children had gone to attend a family friend’s wedding last night and returned late.

Police sources said a domestic help, rang the doorbell around 1pm but didn’t get any response. She returned an hour later but there was no response this time too.

“She alerted some neighbours and also called up Chakraborty’s family friend Moumita Das who lives nearby. Das and her husband dialled the couple’s mobile numbers but both were switched off. They then informed us,” a police officer said.

A police team reached the Sadiq Nagar flat and found the door of the second-floor flat bolted from inside. The police later broke open the door.