Learning of dear one's suicide, eloped lovers hang to death

Bengaluru, Jan 15: Two young lovers who eloped from their village to begin a new life in the city were forced to kill themselves as they learnt of a family member's suicide.

Venugopal (26), a tax collector at the gram panchayat, and his girlfriend Divya (22), a BA student, were natives of Huliyurdurga in Tumakuru district. They eloped on Saturday and reached Bengaluru by the evening.

Venugopal called his friend Shashidhar, a marketing executive in a private firm, and asked him to arrange for a night stay somewhere. He took the couple to his sister Mahalakshmi's house in Kaggalipura.

Convincing Mahalakshmi that the duo have come on some personal business and will leave in the morning, Shashidhar organized the stay. While Mahalakshmi and Divya slept in one room, Shashidhar and Venugopal occupied a different room.

Mahalakshmi woke up at 5.30 am on Sunday. Awakening Divya and asking her to get ready and leave, she went up to her terrace to wash clothes. Venugopal had called his father Byrashetty to find out the situation at the village. Byrashetty told him that Divya's mother Shanthamma had committed suicide.

When Venugopal informed Divya about her mother's suicide, the girl was distraught and blamed herself for letting her mother down. The lovers then decided to end their lives. They entered Mahalakshmi's room, locked the door and hung themselves from the ceiling.

Mahalakshmi told that her room was locked when she came down from the terrace. When her urgent knocks went unanswered, she peaked through the window and froze in shock to see the two young lovers hanging.

She called her brother, who was away at work, and informed the Kaggalipura police.

Mahalakshmi also found out that Venugopal had used her phone to call his father and left the phone in the hall. She was unaware that the lovers had eloped and believed Venugopal's story that Divya was his sister-in-law and they were in the city on some personal work.

Kaggalipura police had rushed to the place and held a search. They later sent the bodies for post-mortem.