Jamshedpur: Celebration, not catastrophe, was what neighbours of Nishant Kumar Singh had expected on Tuesday, the eighth wedding anniversary of the Baridih businessman and his beloved wife Munni.

However, Flat 2124 on the second floor of Sunflower block and Vijaya Gardens had no bash in store for those who knew the "beautiful, young and friendly couple", but only bodies. Not one. Not two. Three.

That Singh - who ran a canteen at the ESI Hospital in Adityapur and had a seemingly profitable fabrication business with Tata Steel as his client - could kill his wife, 35, and their six-year-old son, and then hang himself over unpaid loans seemed a nightmare to most people who knew him closely.

Many well-wishers of the Singh family broke into tears when they saw the lifeless bodies of a poisoned Munni and her son Akshak sprawled on the bed. Some said the family was a happy one just like a blooming sunflower.

"We were expecting Nishant to throw a party on his wedding anniversary. I still can't believe we will be carrying bodies for cremation instead," said Indrajit Prasad, a resident of Lotus block.

R.S. Singh, a Tata Steel employee who stays on the fourth floor of Sunflower block, said he never expected murders and suicides to happen at Vijaya Gardens.

"This is a peaceful residential colony of well-heeled people. It is difficult for me to come to terms with reality. Nishant was a good man. A friendly neighbour. I can't believe what has just happened," said the visibly devastated man.

Singh said he was preparing to report for duty around 8am when he received the tragic news. "I informed my senior at work and took a day's leave. We are trying to console Nishant's elderly parents who stay in another flat on the same floor (where the incident took place)."

Not just neighbours, security guards, shopkeepers and everyone who knew the family made a beeline to the Vijaya Gardens block. The common thread of discussion was how something so bad could have happened to such good people.

Ashok Kumar, another resident of Vijaya Gardens, said the only incident that could measure up in grief with Tuesday's tragedy took place two decades ago.

"A man from Mango had killed his wife and daughter and fled to Calcutta where he jumped from a boat into the Hooghly river. But, police saved him from drowning. He was later brought him to Jamshedpur, tried in a court of law and sentenced for double murder," Kumar recalled.