The body of the father of a schoolgirl, who had drowned herself at Bokaro's Cooling Pond last week, floated at the same reservoir on Tuesday afternoon, throwing the family into deep mourning.
Chas grocer and Kunwar Singh Colony resident S.K. Prasad (46), who discovered the body of his "favourite child" Rimjhim Kumari on April 1, was distraught after her last rites, his son Aman (17) told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Wild with grief, Prasad had told his wife Mamta Devi late in the evening of April 1 that he immediately wanted to buy rope from the market, crying that if he had a piece of rope at home, he could have rescued his daughter from the pond.
The family, already in shock over Rimjhim's suicide at the tender age of 15 over her dread of Class IX final exam results, let him go.
That was the last time his surviving family of wife, son and three daughters saw him.
"We all knew Rimjhim was his favourite," Aman, a Class XI student of Chas High School, said. "After the last rites of my sister were over and we all came home, papa, who was constantly weeping and asking aloud how he would live without his daughter, suddenly told mother he would go to Chas market to buy some rope immediately. He said he could not bear to stay in the house."
But, when he did not return at 10pm, the family got worried. "We searched everywhere, asked relatives and friends, lodged a complaint with Chas thana. But, he was not found."
On Tuesday afternoon, the police informed the Prasads that a body was found floating in the same Cooling Pond where Rimjhim was found. "We identified the decomposed body of our father with the help of his clothes and wristwatch," the boy said. "How will we live with this double blow?"
"The body has been sent for post-mortem. Prima facie this looks like suicide, though no note has been found," said Sector IX police station OC A.K. Jha. "It is a tragedy for the whole family whose two members were found dead at the same pond within a week."
Rimjhim, who had been tense about her Class IX final exam results, left home on March 30. On March 31, her parents got the news that she scored 62 per cent.
A day later, when her body was found, Prasad had sobbed before this correspondent, saying his daughter had obtained first division marks and why did she kill herself.
