Debt-ridden rice miller, wife end life; 7 booked

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 22

A debt-ridden rice miller, Shashi Mohan Aggarwal (65), and his wife, Shiela Rani (62), committed suicide by consuming poison in the wee hours of today at their residence in Sunny Side Colony, Kapurthala.

They were taken to a private hospital in Jalandhar after a Kapurthala hospital refused to admit them. Within hours, they were declared dead.

Aggarwal, who was also an arhtiya (commission agent), was the owner of the Aggarwal rice mill at Fattudhinga village. He had been under depression for the past several days due to mounting debts.

Seven persons were booked under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC — Dr Varinder Sood, Lakhvir Singh, Lovely Kumar, Shila Devi, Ravneet Kaur, Maddi Singh and Sukhwinder Singh.

ASI Darshan Singh said Aggarwal owed money to some people, while others were his debtors. DSP Daljit Singh Dhillon said, “No suicide note was found. The FIR was registered on the basis of a statement given by the couple’s son, Sanjeev Kumar.”

Sanjeev said, “For the past many days, several creditors had made the lives of my parents miserable. Among the debtors, some owed us about Rs 30 lakh.”