Bengaluru mass suicide: Toddler was suffocated to death, reveals post-mortem report

Bengaluru: Days after five members of a family, including a nine-month-old male infant, were found dead at their home here the post-mortem report has revealed that the toddler was suffocated to death and did not die due to starvation, police sources said on Thursday..

The report states that the baby was suffocated to death with a piece of cloth.

On September 17, the decomposed bodies of four adults were found hanging from the ceiling in different rooms from their residence in the city’s Thigalarapalya while the infant was lying on the bed. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl child was found in a state of unconsciousness, possibly due to starvation and police termed her survival as a “miracle”.

The incident came to light when the head of the family, Hallegere Shankar, who was away, came home after four days, as his repeated calls to family members had gone unanswered.

Later, the police have recovered death notes from the residence, wherein all family members alleged that their father Shankar’s recklessness, extramarital affairs and ill-treatment were the reason for their death.

The police have recovered three laptops, two iPods and mobiles from the spot and they were retrieving the data to find out more details about the case.

Shankar and his two sons-in-law were being questioned by the Byadarahalli police.

Meanwhile, Shakar has refuted the accusations against him in the death note and claimed that his wife and two daughters did not take his advice to lead a peaceful life and fought with him.

An investigation is ongoing.

 

With IANS inputs