Harassed couple commits suicide

Kendrapada, Apr 26 (UNI) Unable to bear the humiliation and physical assault on them, a married couple committed suicide at Panapada village under Kendrapara police station yesterday.

Police said the couple lost their mental balance after three truck owners, supporters of a political party, assaulted them on the charges that they had stolen diesel from their trucks.

Harihara Behera,a resident of Mathili under Malkanagiri district, and his spouse Jhunubala attempted suicide by taking insecticide in their rented house.

Harihara was assaulted near Paradeep by Bajia,a truck owner and his brother Chagala on April 24. He was again assaulted the next day when the couple refused to unload iron materials at Paradeep.

The couple decided to end their lives and went to Chandol bazaar on Wednesday to purchase insecticide. They consumed it after mixing it with honey.

They were rushed to the district headquarters hospital by the neighbours but Harihara died on the way. His wife, however, survived after treatment. But when she came to know of the death of her husband from the police last night she committed suicide by hanging herself from a banyan tree, police said.

The police sent the bodies for autopsy and registered a case against the truck owners. One of them was arrested while two managed to escape. The arrested truck owner was sent to jail custody today after his bail petition was rejected by the local court.

UNI