Gujarat: Family of five in Dahod end lives

VADODARA: In what appears prima facie to be suicide pact by an entire family, five persons including a couple and their three daughters ended their lives in Dahod town sometime on Thursday night.
Preliminary investigations hint at the possibility of financial crisis as the reason behind the drastic step.
The family of deceased Saifuddin Dudhiyawala (42) used to stay in Batul Apartments in the Sujaibaug locality on Godhra Road in Dahod.According to sources, the bodies of Dudhiyawala, his wife Mehzabin (35) and their three daughters 16-year-old Zainab and her twin sister Arva, and 7-year-old Hussaina were found in the apartment on Friday morning.
Parents of the deceased, Shabbir Dudhiyawala and mother Mariam, who stayed with the family were, however, not around at the time of the incident.
On Thursday, the parents had gone to visit their daughter Sakina, who too stays in Dahod. They stayed back at the daughter’s residence for the night. The next morning when the duo reached home and tried calling their son from the ground floor, they could not contact him as his phone was out of reach.
Shabbir then asked his wife to climb up the stairs as he had problem in walking. Soon, Mariam started hysterically calling out to her husband from the gallery of the house after seeing her son and the entire family lying unconscious.
Shabbir later told the police that he reached the apartment and saw his son lying in the living room even as his wife Mehzabin and the three daughters lay in the adjoining bedroom.
According to H P Karen, in charge Dahod town police inspector, cops have recovered a suicide note from the spot. However, he denied sharing the details of its contents and said it will be disclosed only after the ‘panchnama’ and formally recovering the note as evidence.
Sources said that the family was facing serious financial difficulties and was under debts. The suicide pact may have been a way out to end their woes, it is believed.
The family, involved in the business of trading in disposable plates, bowls, glasses and similar items, had migrated from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh to Dahod.