April 21: A 33-year-old mother of two jumped off the terrace of a four-storey building on Jhowtala Road this afternoon as people in neighbouring Quest Mall's parking lot tried to dissuade her.

Preeti Jaju was declared dead at Chittaranjan National Medical College and Hospital.

Police said investigation suggested Jaju had committed suicide minutes after accompanying an injured child from her building to her mother.

Witnesses told the police that Jaju was seen standing on the parapet around 2.30pm before getting down on a tin shed 10ft below and then plunging to her death.

"Many people at the parking lot opposite the building screamed to dissuade her from jumping. But she jumped," a guard at the mall said.

Jaju and her husband Ritesh have two daughters, aged five and seven. While one studies in upper kindergarten, the other is a Class III student.

The couple, married for eight years, lived in Delhi before shifting to Calcutta last year. The family stayed in a flat on the first floor of the building at 31/C Jhowtala Road with Ritesh's parents and his uncle and aunt. The house is their ancestral property, the aunt said.

Ritesh works at his uncle's office on Ezra Street, the police said.

The couple's younger daughter was home when Jaju jumped off the terrace. The other daughter was in school.

"Around 2.15pm, the guard told us that a child had hurt herself. Durga (Jaju's mother-in-law) and she rushed downstairs. Durga returned after some time and told me the girl had scraped her knees and that they had taken her to her mother," Ritesh's aunt Kusum said. "When I enquired about our daughter-in-law, Durga said she might have gone to the terrace."

Minutes later, there were screams and the guard knocked on the door to say Jaju had jumped off the terrace, she said.

Vijaya Lakshmi Mundra, the mother of the injured girl, said Jaju had behaved "normally" when she and Durga arrived at her house with her daughter.

"No suicide note has been found. Her parents are in Gurgaon... they have been informed," an officer said.

Some "domestic problem" could have led to the suicide, the police said.