Ranchi: Six members of a dry fruits trader's family were found dead in Hazaribagh town on Sunday morning, some 110km from here, with at least two suicide notes clearly stating the four adults of the financially troubled family had committed suicide while the trader had killed his two children before killing himself.

When residents of CDM Apartment, under Sadar thana area, woke up on Sunday morning, they were shocked to see Naresh Agrawal, 40, dead on the ground. Circumstantial evidence suggested he had fallen off the five-storey building.

When they rushed to Naresh's flat (No. 302) to inform his family, they found doors open and a macabre scene before them. Naresh's father Mahavir Maheshwari, 70, was hanging from a ceiling fan; son Aman, 10, lying on the bed with his throat slit, in another room, Naresh's mother Kiran Devi, 65, was hanging from another ceiling fan, wife Priti, 38, was on the bed with a sari knotted round her neck and daughter Anvi, 8, was prostrate on the sofa. All were dead.

Panic-stricken residents of the apartment called up police and Naresh's close relatives in Hazaribagh. Police recovered six suicide notes kept at prominent places such as the place of worship, kitchen. Naresh is suspected to have written these notes.

One of these notes, with mathematical precision, stated, " bimari + dukan bandh + dukandaron ka bakaya na dena + badnami + karz se tanaw = maut (illness +shop closure or bad business + inability to repay market debts + loss of reputation + mental stress caused by loans = death)".

Another noted stated he had killed his son and daughter, while his wife and parents had committed suicide.

Hazaribagh DSP Chandan Kumar Vatsa, who is heading the inquiries, called it a bizarre incident of its kind. "It seems daughter Anvi was given sedatives before being strangulated with a rubber tube, probably the one used in a blood pressure measuring instrument. Aman's throat was slit with a razor. It is bizarre incident of its kind," he said.

Another police officer who is a part of the inquiry team said, "Naresh had inherited his ancestral dry fruit business, which ran into rough weather during recent years. Our preliminary inquiries revealed he was under severe mental stress. Apparently, he had also undergone psychiatric treatment in Ranchi. The police are also trying to find out whether his business associates had mounted undue pressure on him to repay debts."

All six bodies had been sent for post-mortem, DSP Vatsa added.