Couple ends life, 3 minors orphaned

Panchkula: A married couple committed suicide after having an altercation here today. Around 8 am, 33-year-old Parveen Saini locked himself in his bedroom and hanged himself from a ceiling fan. He was taken to the Civil Hospital in Sector 6 where he was declared brought dead around 10 am.

Ashu & Parveen Saini, victims

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 24

A married couple committed suicide after having an altercation here today. Around 8 am, 33-year-old Parveen Saini locked himself in his bedroom and hanged himself from a ceiling fan. He was taken to the Civil Hospital in Sector 6 where he was declared brought dead around 10 am. Soon after coming to know about the tragedy, his 31-year-old wife Ashu Saini left the hospital and ended her life by hanging herself from a grill of the boundary wall at the Golf Range in Sector 21.

While Parveen worked as a mathematics teacher at a government school in Basola village, Pinjore, Ashu worked as a steno with the UT Education Department. The couple are survived by three children — two daughters, aged nine and five, and a seven-month-old boy — said Sector 21 police post in-charge Jaswinder Singh.

According to the police, the couple had an argument early this morning and after dropping the two daughters to school, Parveen locked himself in his room “to get ready for the day”. In the meantime, Ashu left for her work and Parveen’s parents, who live with the couple in their house in Shiv Colony, found Parveen hanging in his room.

Parveen was taken to the Civil Hospital and Ashu was informed, who came directly to the hospital. When doctors declared Parveen brought dead, Ashu handed over her seven-month-old son to one of the relatives and went outside. After a while, when she did not return, the family, along with the police, went to look for her and found her hanging at the Sector 21 Golf Range.

Ashu was on childcare leave for the past six months and had visited her office a few days ago in a bid to extend her leave. Sources in the UT Education Department said Ashu was having problems with her mother-in-law as the couple had married against the parents’ wish and belonged to different castes.

According to Ashu’s colleagues, this could have been the reason behind the altercations between the couple following which Parveen, who was reportedly under pressure from both sides, decided to commit suicide. “Ashu may have felt that she was responsible for her husband’s suicide, which drove her to commit suicide,” one of Ashu’s colleagues said.

The bodies were handed over to the family after postmortem. The three children are staying with their grandparents.