Bhubaneswar, Feb. 7: Five persons, including a married couple and two young lovers, committed suicide in the capital today.

In the first incident, lovers Subash Chandra Behera, 22, and Jyotsna Rani Sahu, 21, both residents of Ghangapatana village in Chandaka police limits, hanged themselves to death. While Subash was found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of the village, Jyotsna hanged herself at her home.

Sources said the lovers, who were neighbours, ended their lives after family members opposed their relationship. Their families, however, denied this.

Sudarshan Sahu, a relative of the girl, said they were not opposed to their marriage, as they were adults. “We have known they were in love for several years. Though we were initially opposed to the relationship, we later accepted it,” said Sahu.

A relative of Subash too said they were also not opposed to the couple’s relationship.

“Even the girl’s family was ready for their marriage, though one of her relatives was opposing the match. We don’t know why they committed suicide,” said the relative. He said the family would not even have minded if the couple had eloped.

A friend of the youth, on condition of anonymity, said both families had been opposed to the relationship over the past six years. “They were not allowed to meet. That is why the two committed suicide. It was only after they had died that the family members realised their mistake and decided to cremate them at one place,” said the friend.

In another incident, a married couple committed suicide by throwing themselves on railway tracks near Lingaraj railway station today following a family quarrel. While the husband killed himself in the morning, the wife ended her life at the same spot in the afternoon.

The man Rabindra Barik, 35, from Purusottampur in Ganjam, committed suicide around 11am by jumping in front of a speeding train near Lingaraj station on the outskirts of the city. Barik used to work for a non-governmental organisation in the city and was staying in Dumduma.

The government railway police said they had recovered the body and had kept it at the morgue of Capital Hospital for post-mortem.

Then they informed his wife in Dumduma.

However, in the afternoon, the wife Jyotsna Barik, too, committed suicide at the same spot by jumping in front of a train. “Perhaps she lost the will to live after her husband’s death,” said a police officer.

The couple had a seven-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. As their family members have not come to the city, police have kept the bodies in the hospital mortuary.

In yet another incident, an engineering graduate Sumit Kumar Panda, 23, committed suicide by jumping in front of a train at Bamikhal. The youth was staying with his mother and sister in Vishakha Enclave.

His father is a mining engineer who stays in Balangir. In the morning, the family members were informed by the railway police about the youth’s death. His family members said they didn’t know why Sumit had committed suicide.