The tree at Sukhia Road from which Balbir Singh hanged himself on Friday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

There is no curbing the city’s death wish, which has assumed epidemic proportions irrespective of age and class.

A 21-year-old college student and a 27-year-old auto-rickshaw driver chose the noose in separate incidents in Sidhgora since Thursday, taking the suicide toll to seven in just five days of this month and a staggering 65 since January.

Sonia Kumari, a third-year commerce student of Graduate School College for Women in Sakchi, hanged herself with a dupatta from a ceiling fan at her Agrico Workers’ Flat home after 9.30pm on Thursday. She has not left behind a suicide note, but the door of her room had been found locked from inside.

Father Kamta Prasad, a Tata Steel employee, said they were clueless why Sonia took such a step. “My daughter was absolutely good when I last saw her alive. Then, we found her hanging. We rushed her to Tata Main Hospital, but in vain,” he added.

The body has been sent to MGM Medical College for post-mortem.

The other incident took place just a kilometre away. Balbir Singh climbed on the hood of his auto-rickshaw and hanged himself from a neem tree in front of his Sukhia Road house early on Friday.

Father Dara Singh said the youth had returned home late and drunk on Thursday. “He had slept on the veranda. Around 6am, we found his body hanging from the tree.”

Police are yet to ascertain why he killed himself. The body has been sent for autopsy.