BHUBANESWAR: Five members of a family allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a moving train near Sarla Junction in Odisha's Sambalpur district on Tuesday evening around 300 km from here. The deceased were identified as Dharanidhar Panda, his wife Sangeeta, their daughters Aparajita, Ananya, a Plus Two student, and Siddhi, a Class-VII student. According to police, Dharanidhar who hailed from Buruda village in Bargarh district, was working as a music teacher at Madanawati Public School here. The family was residing at Jagannath Colony, Sambalpur.
Neighbours said the music teacher and his family members were leading their lives under acute poverty. The house in which they were residing at Jagannath Colony belonged to Dharanidhar's friend and they were probably unable to pay the rent, they said. The five reportedly jumped in front of Sambalpur-Jharsuguda DMU at around 8.30 pm. The driver of the train informed Government Railway Police (GRP) about the incident at around 9 pm following which GRP and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel reached the spot and recovered the bodies.
“We are probing all angles leading to their deaths,” said GRP inspector G. Dung Dung. Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi, who reached the spot on being informed, said the incident was an "unfortunate" one. A proper probe will be carried out to ascertain the truth, she added.
