Cheated of Rs 20,000, five of family commit suicide

Five members of a family in south-central Bihar’s Aurangabad district reportedly committed suicide after they were cheated out of Rs 20,000 sanctioned under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

Five members of a family in south-central Bihar’s Aurangabad district reportedly committed suicide after they were cheated out of Rs 20,000 sanctioned under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

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Locals said the five including three children set themselves on fire.

The incident occurred late Sunday night at Hasanbigha village, 55 km from the Aurangabad district headquarters.

Police said the cause of their death was under investigation but locals insisted Ram Bachan, his wife and three children committed suicide after some middlemen defrauded them. Two other children, sleeping with their grandmother in an adjoining room, survived.

“The house was locked from inside, and they tied themselves with wire, poured kerosene to set themselves ablaze around 12:30am (Monday),” said an officer from the nearest police station at Haspura. A forensic team found the bodies were tied with a metal wire, which made the police doubt the suicide theory.

District magistrate Abhay Kumar has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident while superintendent of police Siddharth Mohan Jain has entrusted the autopsy to a three-member medical board.

Ram Bachan, belonging to the backward Kharwar community, reportedly confronted the middlemen but was told the money had to be returned because he failed to construct his house with the first installment (Rs 10,000). The villager had approached local-level officials in vain.

Haspura SHO Surendra Sahni said one of the middlemen has been identified and an FIR would soon be lodged against him.