Bhubaneswar, April 15: In a tragic incident, seven members of a family, including four daughters and two sons, committed suicide on the roadside at Katarabeda near Ghatagaon in Keonjhar district. However, the head of the family survived and is struggling for life at the local hospital.

The reason for the mass suicide has not yet been ascertained. The police have sent the bodies for post-mortem and seized a pesticide bottle from the spot. Ghatagaon police said all of them died because of consuming pesticide.

Police sources said Uttar Meher, a resident of Bargarh, had gone to Ghatagaon with his four daughters, two sons and wife on April 13 to pay offerings at the Tarini Temple. While the two sons were the youngest, the elder four were daughters aged between eight and 20. On Wednesday night, they stayed at Ghatgaon and today left for their village taking a bus. But police remained clueless as to why they had got off from the bus at Kuturgada near the Sita river after travelling 20km from the temple site.

It has not been ascertained whether Meher had forced his siblings to take poison or clandestinely offered the poison by mixing it with food stuff. However, some bruise marks were noticed on the bodies of few children. The children’s hands were also tied.

“We can not interrogate Meher at this point as he is struggling for life. After he is out of danger, we will quiz him,” said a police officer of Ghatagaon police station.

Meher by profession is a weaver.