Doc family suicide pact: Debt theory baffles police, relatives

Bangalore, December 4: What drove the family of three doctors and a would-be medical graduate to suicide? Was it debt or something else?

Police as well as the relatives of the dead are equally dumbfounded at the hints that the family ended their lives in a suicide pact because of their inability to repay a debt said to be in the range of Rs one crore to Rs five crore. But no one is sure. Naziya, 22, who was adopted by Mohammad Amanullah and Naveeda Banu 11 years ago because the couple did not have a daughter, says she is not sure about the family’s debt.

She said the couple had borrowed money to educate their sons Mohammad Ehtesham Rasheed (28), who graduated from M S Ramaiah College, Bangalore, and Mohammad Afham Rasheed (26), who was pursuing final-year MBBS at Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar.

But the family struggled to repay the loans and borrowed more. “They used to talk among themselves about it (the debt),” Naziya said in her statement to the police.

Fayyaz Ahmad, husband of Amanullah’s sister-in-law, put the family debt at between Rs 80 lakh and Rs one crore. But was the liability indeed the reason for their suicides? Fayyaz too is not sure. “It was not a debt they couldn’t have repaid.

I’d be shocked to know they ended their lives for this,” Fayyaz told Deccan Herald. Buoyed by the success of their hospital, Khuda Care Nursing Home, the family had opened another health centre at Shamanna Garden where Dr Amanullah used to practise more.

It employed several nurses and other staff who were provided accommodation on the third floor of the building.

Police, on their part, are also clueless about the reason for the suicides. With no death note found, they concluded, after enquiring with the relatives and neighbours of the deceased, that the family’s decision was driven most likely by their inability to repay the loans.

Naziya’s mother died when she was about seven years old. Her father, Noorullah, abandoned her. The doctor couple then adopted her. She studied till 7th class. She denied any issues with the family and said she stayed with them quite happily.

Dr Amanullah and his sons left home for an unknown place at 7.30 am on Thursday. When they returned around 11.30 pm, Naziya enquired about supper. But Amanullah asked her to go to bed. When she persisted, he sternly asked her to not disturb him. “Main poochhna chahti thi magar unhon gusse mein the, isliye khamosh rag gayi” (I wanted to persist with the queries but had to keep quiet because of his annoyance), Naziya said.

Minutes after she entered her bedroom, it was bolted from outside. She pleaded Amanullah to open the door but there was no response. When asked if she realised that something was amiss then, Naziya said: “I was very confused and apprehensive but that (suicide) did not strike my mind. The only thing which distrurbed me was the baffling silence.”

The family injected the paralytic drug, Succinylcholine, with three syringes. Police found the syringes, along with five 10ml vials of the drug, four of them empty, at the spot. Although the drug is not available in the market, the deceased, being medical practitioners themselves, might have procured it easily.

Naziya says her adopted family did not have food last night. They did not even change their clothes. Amanullah wore formal clothes and slept in one corner, flanked to the right by his wife who wore a salwar kameez. Ehtesham slept next to his mother and Afham, who wore jeans, on the far right. They slept with their feet towards a sofa.

Suicide pact stuns residents of Valmiki Nagar

The suicide by what people described a ''family of doctors'' has stunned the residents of Valmiki Nagar, a congested neighbourhood off Mysore Road with a sizeable Muslim population.

As the news spread, people thronged the Khuda Care Nursing Home. M Chandrappa, a neighbour, said that the news made everyone rush to the narrow lane where the hospital is located. Chandrappa was among the first who heard the news and rushed to the spot. “It was a frightening scene,” he said.

Dr Amanullah, the head of the family, had two brothers, both doctors. One of them lives in the Gulf and the other in Bellary. He had three sisters.

Amanullah’s wife, Naveeda Banu, had three brothers, Majid Ahmad, Saleem Ahmad, and Jamsheed Ahmad, and three sisters, Nousheed, Anjum, and Asfiya. The family lives on KT Street, Mysore. Most of them arrived in the City upon hearing the news.

Near-stampede

People jostled for space when the bodies were brought from Victoria Hospital and laid outside for public viewing. It was a near-stampede as men and women struggled to catch a glimpse of the dead.

Banu’s body was lined first but men were prohibited from catching a glimpse, in accordance with the Islamic principles. This further crowded the place as women found it hard to move on and men to stride past.

The bodies were taken to Mysore in an ambulance.

Laid to rest in Mysore

Mysore: Last rites of four of a doctor’s family who killed selves in?Bangalore on Thursday midnight, were performed at a burial ground in the city on?Saturday.

The mortal remains of Dr Mohammed?Amanullah (61) his wife Naveeda?Banu (50), their sons Mohammed Ehtesham Rasheed (28) and Mohammed Afham Rasheed (26) were brought to the residence of Mohammed Adil Rasheed, on?K?T?Street in the city on Friday night.

Rasheed is the father of Naveeda Banu. The last rites were performed at the burial ground near Tipu?Circle in?N?R?Mohalla.

The doctor’s family had killed selves after allegedly injecting themselves with a paralytic drug at their house-cum-hospital at fourth cross, second main, Valmiki Nagar in Bangalore. The doctor owed huge debt to the tune of not more than Rs one crore, the reason behind their extreme step, according to a relative.