DU prof, found dead on railway line, may have forced mother into suicide pact: Cops
Police have also recovered two knives from the bedroom of the Pitampura flat, where the 55-year-old woman was found hanging from the ceiling fan on Saturday afternoon.
DELHI Updated: Oct 22, 2019 05:57 IST
Karn Pratap Singh
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Investigators said the man’s colleagues and family friends had been regularly talking to them and trying their best to discourage them from ending their lives.(Representational Image)Investigations into the deaths of St Stephen’s College adhoc assistant professor and his mother has revealed that the man may have allegedly forced his mother into a suicide pact some days ago. The plan, however, didn’t materialise at that time because she backed out, police said.
Investigators said the man’s colleagues and family friends had been regularly talking to them and trying their best to discourage them from ending their lives.
“A witness has confirmed that the man had told him that he had tried to force his mother to commit suicide once earlier, but she had backed out then,” said A Koan, deputy commissioner of police (outer)
Police have also recovered two knives from the bedroom of the Pitampura flat, where the 55-year-old woman was found hanging from the ceiling fan on Saturday afternoon. The woman’s mouth was stuffed with clothes and her limbs were tied, leading police to suspect that the ad hoc assistant professor may have allegedly murdered his mother.
“The presence of knives suggest that the man may have used them to threaten his mother and dissuade her from raising an alarm,” said an investigator.
Police said the duo was facing an abetment to suicide case that was reportedly filed in a police station in Kerala, allegedly by the family of the woman’s second husband’s former wife. The woman’s first husband reportedly died (reason and cause not known) in 2016 in Kerala’s Kottayam. She then married for a second time in 2018.
“Her second husband killed himself in December 2018. We don’t know the reason behind his extreme step. His first wife’s family members filed an abetment to suicide case against the woman and her son. We are yet to get a copy of the FIR,” said Rajender Singh Sagar, additional deputy commissioner of police (outer).
Police said the ad hoc assistant professor was pursuing his PhD from IIT-Delhi. An official from IIT-Delhi said the two were reportedly distressed by some media reports about their case.
On Sunday, a few family friends of the mother-son duo took to social media and blamed a few media organisations in Kerala for their deaths. They accused the media houses of allegedly publishing stories in which the woman was blamed for her second husband’s death, causing “unbearable public humiliation” to her and her son.
“He had taken classes on Friday and the students are shocked that he took this step,” a third-year student of St Stephen’s College said, requesting anonymity.
