A police official at the Nayapalli house where the mother and son were found dead. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 18: The bodies of a 48-year-old man and his mother were recovered from their rented house at Nayapalli today under mysterious circumstances.

While Ashok Mohapatra, who ran a mathematics coaching centre, was found hanging from the ceiling fan, the body of his mother Sushila Mohapatra, 75, was lying on the floor of her room.

Family members of Ashok, whose wife Anita Samantray is a schoolteacher and whose 18-year-old daughter Shree Mohapatra is pursuing computer course, said he had committed suicide. It was Shree, an integrated masters in computer application student in Utkal University, who first saw the bodies and informed police.

Anita was not present in the house when Shree spotted the bodies. Shree came home from the university around 1pm. “Shree said when she opened the door, she found her father hanging and later found her grandmother lying on the floor in another room,” said a police officer.

The police said Ashok, his wife and daughter, each had a key to the house.

Ashok, a native of Ganjam, had been staying in the rented house for nearly 15 years.

“We rushed to his house after being informed by his daughter and wife. We can’t guess what drove him to suicide,” said Rajendra Kumar Mohapatra, Ashok’s cousin.

The police said prima-facie evidence suggested that Sushila could have died of natural causes because she was suffering from paralysis. “We have sent both the bodies for post-mortem and are awaiting the report,” said inspector in-charge of Nayapalli police station K.C. Mund.

However, the police have come to know of the frequent quarrels between the husband and the wife over taking care of Sushila. “We are trying to find out if this was, in any way, responsible for the incident,” said another police official. Neighbours, however, suspect that Ashok might have committed suicide after finding her mother dead.

“He used to love his mother very much. It is possible that he might have committed suicide after finding her dead,” said a neighbour.