A 40-year-old woman hanged herself while a youth jumped in front of a running train in twin cases of suicide that jolted the city out of its slumber on Sunday morning.

N. Nirmala Rao hanged herself from the ceiling fan of the kitchen at her three-storey house in Kagalnagar, Sonari, in the morning. 

According to police, Nirmala woke up around 4.30am and prepared breakfast for husband N. Ishwar Rao, a Tata Steel employee.

“It appears that she took the extreme step after her husband left for office around 5.30am. Her son Praveen and mother Shyama were sleeping then. The matter came to light when Shyama woke up around 6am and found her hanging,” said sub-inspector B.K. Singh from Sonari thana.

Though the husband claimed that there was nothing unusual with his wife, one of the relatives said that Ishwar was a habitual drinker, which was a cause of regular quarrels between the two. 

“Ishwar used to fight with his wife in an inebriated state frequently. Nirmala was not happy,” the relative told The Telegraph.

After preliminary probe, the sub-inspector said: “Primarily it appears to be a case of suicide, and police will try to ascertain the real cause of her death from Rao.”

In another incident, a  man, appeared to be 30-year-old, jumped in front of a running goods train at Makdampur, Parsudih, in the Tata-Ghatshila section around 7am.

The identity of the man could not be ascertained. 

Parsudih thana OC B.K. Chaturvedi said an old man had seen the man jumping on the tracks. “This a case of suicide. We will preserve the body for the next 72 hours,” Chaturvedi added.