New Delhi, Oct. 4: Accused by a teenager on television of rape, her uncle and his wife have committed suicide after leaving behind a note saying that he was impotent.

Naresh Pal, 46, and wife Gita, 40, consumed insecticide at their staff quarters in the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Road, in south-west Delhi. Both died in hospital today. Naresh was a driver in the institute.

Their niece had gone on record on three television channels, accusing Naresh of repeatedly raping her for five years. The suicide note said the couple had decided to die unable to bear the humiliation.

Police, who had lodged a complaint of rape against Naresh, said it was mentioned in the letter that he was incapable of having sex.

They said Naresh’s first wife ? the widow of his elder brother ? corroborated this. After Naresh’s brother died, according to village custom, his widow was married to Naresh. Gita was Naresh’s second wife.

The father of the 17-year-old girl has also debunked his daughter’s allegations, police sources said. The girl, whose mother has passed away, was living with Naresh along with her father and brother.

On television, the teenager had also alleged that her uncle beat up her brother who tried to intervene.

In the suicide note, Naresh said he and Gita had taken the extreme step because he was wrongly accused of rape.

According to the sources, the note said the girl’s accusations had brought him and his family disrepute. His niece had levelled the charges because the family had objected to her affair with a boy, Naresh wrote. He alleged that the girl and her boyfriend had ganged up to defame them.

The police first received information about the couple’s suicide from tenants who had been sub-let the official quarters at Inderpuri in south-west Delhi.

The couple had gone to their tenants’ around 9 last night and told them that they would be spending the night there. Around 1 am, Gita woke up the tenants and told them that she was not feeling well. Then she informed the tenants that she and Naresh had consumed poison.

They were rushed to hospital but Naresh died soon after and Gita later in the morning.

“It is a complicated case. At the moment we are just recording the statements of all the people,” said one of the police officers investigating whether it is a case of rape. The police refused to say if the girl would face action on the charge of abetting suicide in case the rape allegation is not established.