Married for 70 years, couple die minutes apart

November 20, 2012

hands

Chennai, November 20: They loved each other and lived together for long. And when they died, it was also almost together. Bagyalakshmi, 82, collapsed and died within minutes of hearing of the death of her husband Palayam, 91. The couple had married nearly seven decades ago when Bagyalakshmi was 12 and Palayam 21.

Palayam, who lived in Punnapakkam, a village near Poondi in Tiruvallur district, about 55km from Chennai, died suddenly on Sunday morning. Minutes later, when the news was passed on to Bagyalakshmi, who was in her son's house in a neighbouring village, she collapsed. She was taken to a private hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. Police said no case was registered as they were natural deaths.

Last week, sources said, the couple had celebrated Diwali at their son's house in Chinna Eakadu. While Bagyalakshmi stayed back, Palayam returned to their house in Punnapakkam to take care of the cattle and the farm.

On Monday, Bagyalakshmi's body was taken to Puunapkkam and kept beside her husband's. The villagers paid their homage. Later, the two were buried close to each other on their own land as per Palayam's wish.

Doctors are not able to explain such deaths of couples, but say when there is an extremely strong bond between couples for long years, each one finds it difficult to be without the other. Geriatrician Dr V S Natrajan said he had himself been witness to such instances. "There is rush of adrenaline when the elderly hear such news. The shock is too much for their aged hearts to bear and they die," he said.

In most cases, death may not occur the same day, but weeks or months later. "Even a perfectly healthy partner can become seriously ill after the death of his/her spouse. It's probably because health is not just about physical being.

It is also about mental and social wellbeing. Many couples may be too old to help each other with their daily chores, they may not be able to hear or see each other, yet they draw strength from their mere presence," said Natarajan.



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News Network
May 28,2020

Hyderabad, MAY 28: A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into a newly drilled open borewell in Telangana's Medak district was found dead in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The kid's body was retrieved at around 4 am after a nearly 10 hours' long rescue operation involving different agencies, they said.

"He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply, " Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti told PTI.

The boy had accidentally slipped into the 120- feet borewell at around 5 pm on Wednesday in an agricultural field located in Papannapet mandal of the district when he was walking with his grandfather and father, police earlier said.

As part of rescue efforts, a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines and oxygen was supplied into it, but the efforts went in vain as the boy's body was found stuck at a depth of around 25 feet, the police said.

Apart from the police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were also involved in the rescue operation.

The borewell into which the child fell was one among the three dug by the family since Tuesday night to try and find water for their fields. But none of them yielded any water, police had said.

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News Network
June 5,2020

Jun 5: A young woman was forced to drink liquor allegedly by her husband after which he along with four friends assaulted, burnt her with cigarette butts and raped her in front of her five year-old son, police said on Friday.

All the five, who were taken into custody earlier, have been arrested. The shocking incident occurred in the state capital last night.

The incident came to light after the 25-year-old woman, approached police and complained against her husband and his four friends.

A case has been registered against the five accused for kidnapping, assaulting and gangrape.

Since the incident took place in front of the child, a case under Protection of children from sexual offices Act has also been charged against the accused.

Meanwhile, State health and family welfare minister K K Shailaja asked the state police chief to take stringentction against the culprits as "such cruelty happened in front of her child."

The Kerala State Women's Commission on its own registered a case and sought report from the Thiruvananthapuram Rural SP.

She managed to escape from there and pleaded for help from a young man, who saw in heran inebriatedstate, and took her to her house and informed police.

The man later told some television channels that she was crying, had injuries on her face and pleaded for help.

Police have recorded the statement of the woman, who was admitted to a government hospital here and later discharged.

She had also stated that the men had tortured her using cigarette butts.

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News Network
January 20,2020

Ahmedabad, Jan 20: Cops in Gandhinagar fell in a catch-22 situation when a state government employee approached them with a complaint that the 26-year-old woman class teacher of his 14-year-old son had gone missing taking his son in tow. The man, who works at Udyog Bhavan in Gandhinagar said the woman had seduced his teenage son, who studies in class VIII and taken him away with her. The boy had gone missing from 4pm on Friday, and the classteacher was also missing.

A police official said the woman teacher had been too intimate with the allegedly missing boy for around a year, and the school authorities had recently rebuked them. “As their relationship was unaccepted, they left their homes on Friday,” he said. It was rare to find a case of a woman teacher eloping with her teenage student, the official added.

An FIR for elopement under Section 363 IPC has been registered with Kalol city police in Gandhinagar district. The complaint stated the teacher is a resident of Darbari chawl in Kalol town.

“When I reached home at around 7pm, I found my son missing. My wife told me he had left home at around 4pm. We searched for him in the neighbourhood and among relatives, but couldn’t trace him,” claims the teenage boy’s father in the FIR. “I went to the teacher’s house but they were not there,” the man stated.

Inspector K K Desai of Kalol city police said the missing duo could not be traced as they were not carrying cellphones.

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