Ranchi: The family whose seven members were found dead at their rented house in Kanke on Monday was in the habit of borrowing money to sponsor an extravagant lifestyle, so much so that their debt ran into several lakhs in a year and ironically drove them to a death pact.
From their landlord to the local grocer, brothers Deepak (40) and Rupesh Jha (30) scrounged cash from everyone they could for reasons as varied as treatment of an ailing toddler to celebrating wife's birthday.
The two men strangulated their elderly parents and Deepak's wife and two children before hanging themselves. A 15-page suicide note mentioned debt behind the death pact.
According to Usha Pandey, a tenant in the same house in Arsande, Deepak's son Jangi was born with macrocephaly (enlarged head) and the family had borrowed lakhs for his treatment in phases.
Krishna Mohan Tiwari, a farmer, said to celebrate the child's birthday, Deepak and his family were seeking Rs 30,000 from different people.
"Deepak worked at a furniture store and did not earn more than Rs 15,000. Rupesh was jobless and their father Sachidanand Jha had mortgaged his pension of Rs 20,000 to avail loan. The brothers had developed taste for good liquor. The family often ordered food from restaurants. They procured mineral water for daily use. Mother Gayatri Devi ate paan masala worth Rs 300 a day. They may be under debt of over Rs 7 lakh," Tiwari said.
Tiwari added that the family had even sold off ancestral property in their native Munger in Bihar to buy comfort.
A local grocer, whom the family still owes Rs 10,000, grieved for Deepak's innocent children - Dristhi (7) and 13-month-old Jangi. " Aamdani-atthanni-kharcha-rupaiya-wali family thi. Sabse mangte the. Inki philosophy thi ki karz lekar ghee piyo. Khud to gaye hi bachchon ko bhi maar diya (They earned a penny and spent a fortune. They borrowed from everyone. Their philosophy was to live a lavish life, even if it meant running into debt. The children didn't deserve such a death)," he said.
The family also owes landlord Alakh Narayan Mishra more than Rs 1 lakh. "I gave them a big sum for Jangi's treatment. The rent of six months at Rs 5,000 a month is still pending," he said.
Police investigations corroborate this debt addiction of the Jha family. Five bank passbooks, EMI papers of five mobile phones and a bike have been found in the house so far.
"The total deposit in each account is not more than Rs 500. Everything, from mobile phones to the bike, was purchased on EMI. For birthday celebrations of the children, the family had borrowed money," said a police officer.
The 15-page suicide letter recovered also mentions debt. "We can't pay off our debts. In March, I had borrowed Rs 5,000 to celebrate my wife Soni's birthday. A part of the money went in treatment of our son Jangi. The rest I spent on buying vegetables, a bouquet and a birthday cake," a portion of the note read.
Neighbours also indicated that the suicidal tendency ran in the family. "Sachidanand's elder brother and nephew - Udaynand Jha and Pankaj Jha - had killed themselves in Munger a few years ago," a resident said.
The rented house in Arsande, which had resembled a morgue after the seven bodies were found strewn or hanging in two rooms on Monday, will give neighbours sleepless nights for now.
Tenant Usha's son, Class II student Suraj (9), who was the first to see the bodies keeps asking his mother if the house would be haunted by ghosts. "We are frantically looking for a new place. This is a cursed house now," she said.
Suraj said: "She was my best friend. On Sunday, we played badminton. I don't want to live here anymore. I feel sick," Suraj said.
Post-mortem has revealed that Dristhi and her toddler brother Jangi were first poisoned while their grandmother was stabbed with a knife in the abdomen before being strangled like their mother and grandfather.
Relatives from Mumbai and Delhi have contacted Ranchi police for the bodies of the deceased.
