Marine engineer Sujit Kundu and wife Pinki. (Sanat Kr Sinha)

A riverside residential block woke up to the stench of murder and suicide on Monday — a marine engineer hanging from a ceiling fan and his wife and father-in-law lying in separate bedrooms with their throats slit.

A suicide note written in blood on a wall in 27-year-old Pinki Kundu’s bedroom indicated that husband Sujit, 37, had killed her and her ailing father, 65-year-old Ajay Nath Pal, before hanging himself.

“E chhilo amar nijer hathe sajano paribar… Bhangte dekhchhilam, tai jure dilam (This was the family I had nurtured… I saw it falling apart, so I am reuniting it),” said the note, in Sujit’s handwriting.

The marine engineer, who was scheduled to set sail on Tuesday, named a female neighbour at Merlin Riverview, on Watgunge Road, and a male relative of Pinki (Metro is withholding their names, pending investigation) as being responsible for the tragic act.

According to investigators, Sujit killed his wife and father-in-law between Friday night and Saturday noon, and committed suicide shortly after.

“We have learnt that Sujit had objected to Pinki’s friendship with a neighbour who led a lavish lifestyle. He was orthodox by nature and did not like his wife mingling with that neighbour. The relative who has been named is apparently Pal’s financial adviser, which was also not to Sujit’s liking,” said Jawed Shamim, the deputy commissioner of the detective department.

Neighbours called the police on Monday morning after being hit by a stench emanating from the 1,600sq feet flat, which is on the second floor of the 12-storeyed Tide tower. There are two other towers of similar height — Wave and Ripples — at Merlin Riverview.

Resident Nadim Ahmed said he last saw Sujit and Pinki enter the building on Friday. “I had knocked on their door on Sunday morning to campaign for the election of our housing committee but nobody opened the door.”

Merlin Riverview on Watgunge Road

When a police team broke open the door to the flat around 7.30am on Monday, the living room was in a mess. “The TV screen had scratches, probably from Pinki’s nails,” an investigator said.

The murder weapon is, however, yet to be found.

Sujit had returned to the city from an eight-month voyage in the high seas two months ago. His family stays at Rabindranagar, in Behala, while Pinki used to live with her diabetic father in his flat at Merlin Riverview because he had not been keeping well.

“Sujit joined them two months ago but he used to visit our Behala residence almost every day,” said Manas Kundu, Sujit’s elder brother.

Manas said his sibling gave no hint of what was to come when they last met at their Behala residence on Friday.

“I called a couple of times on Saturday and Sunday but found his cellphone switched off. I had no reason to suspect that such a thing had happened,” he said.