A debt-ridden man died and his wife and four-year-old daughter were injured after they jumped from the terrace of their four-storeyed building in east Delhi’s Jagatpuri early Monday, police said.
The 34-year-old man died on the spot while his daughter’s fall was cushioned by a scooter parked outside the building. The girl and his 31-year-old mother are undergoing treatment at GTB Hospital, Meghna Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara), said.
The DCP said since the man had jumped with his daughter in his arms, a case of attempt to murder has been registered against him. “He was stressed as he had accumulated credit card debts,” said the officer.
The man lived with his wife and daughter on the ground floor of a four-storey building in Jagatpuri. He worked for a private firm in Gurgaon. His wife is a homemaker.
The woman, who regained consciousness on Wednesday, told the police that her husband had taken credit cards from several banks and accumulated a debt of Rs 8 lakh. “The bank officials had been repeatedly calling and messaging him to return the money, leaving him worried,” she said in her police statement.
They decided to attempt suicide after the family received no financial help from relatives and friends, she said. “My husband had been telling me we would be better dead than the daily tension about the debts,” she said.
The three attempted suicide around 3.30 am on Monday. “He picked up our daughter and went to the terrace. I followed him. He jumped down with our daughter in his arms. I jumped immediately after,” she said.
There were no other eyewitnesses to the incident but the sound of their fall woke up their neighbours who alerted the police and the three were rushed to the hospital.
“The girl survived because she fell on the seat of a scooter parked below. Her mother received serious head injuries but will survive. He was declared brought dead at the hospital,” said another investigator.
“We took the extreme step because we were very disheartened,” the woman told the police.