Bengaluru: In a heart-rending incident, grandparents of a seven-year-old girl, who died after honeybees stung her at Lal Bagh in August last year, ended their lives by jumping before a moving train, unable to cope with the tragedy.
Though the couple took the extreme step on Monday evening, their identities were not established till Wednesday morning. The deceased, K. V. Murthy, 70, and Chaya, 65, were residents of Kanaka Nagar in Kumaraswamy Layout. Their granddaughter, Vaishnavi, had died after bees stung her.
The couple committed suicide near Hebbal under Byappanahalli Railway police station limits. The police had circulated the pictures of the bodies in several police groups to establish the identities, but it had not worked.
“Meanwhile, the couple’s son, Guruprasad, filed a missing complaint with the Kumaraswamy Layout police on Tuesday evening. Guruprasad and his wife, Suguna, had left for work on Monday morning after which the elderly couple had left the house. By evening they reached Hebbal and committed suicide. Guruprasad and his wife, who returned home in the evening, could not trace the couple. They checked with relatives and also searched in Srirangapatna and Nanjangud, thinking that they would have gone to a temple. When they could not trace them, Guruprasad filed the complaint,” the police said.
When Guruprasad returned home after filing the complaint, he found his father’s mobile phone. “He was shocked to see the message, ‘We are going to commit suicide’, on the phone. He also found a note near the phone that said that they could not live anymore as they were shattered by the death of their granddaughter.
Guruprasad immediately rushed back to the police station and informed the staff. The policemen at the station contacted the police control room and got information that an elderly couple had committed suicide in Hebbal. Based on the information, the staff contacted the Byappanahalli Railway Police and got details of the case,” the police said.
On Wednesday morning, Guruprasad identified the bodies of his parents that had been kept at the Bowring Hospital mortuary. “Guruprasad has made a statement that his parents were depressed after Vaishnavi’s death. He was also planning to adopt a girl child so that his parents could return to normal,” the police said.
How Vaishnavi died
Vaishnavi, a second standard student, who had gone to see the Independence Day flower show at Lal Bagh in 2015, had sustained injuries after a swarm of honeybees attacked her. The incident had drawn criticism against the organisers for not taking precautionary measures while organising such a big event.
