Bengaluru: Couple elopes, end lives after woman's mother commits suicide

Bengaluru: Two lovers who had eloped from Huliyurdurga in Kunigal taluk committed suicide at their friend’s house in Kaggalipura police station limits on Sunday morning.

The deceased have been identified as Venugopal (26), a bill collector at Gram Panchayat and Divya (22), a graduate, both hailing from Huliyurdurga.

The couple took the extreme step after they came to know that Divya’s mother had ended her life after she came to know about the elopement, police said. According to police, Venugopal and Divya were in love for over a year and wanted to get married.When the couple’s family objected to their marriage, they eloped from their houses on Saturday evening and landed in Bengaluru on the same night.

Venugopal called up his friend Amit (name changed), who works in the city, and stays at his sister’s house in Kaggalipura, and requested him to accommodate them for a night as it was very late.

Amit took the couple to his sister’s house, but she did not allow them to stay and advised them to return to their houses. However, as it was late, she allowed the girl to stay and asked Venugopal to sleep outside the house and gave a blanket and a pillow, the police said.

Around 6 am on Sunday, when Venugopal switched on his mobile phone, he received a call from his relative informing him about the death of Divya’s mother.

Venugopal then narrated the incident to Amit's sister and requested her to let him meet and talk to Divya, who was sleeping inside.The duo entered the room and locked it from inside. Initially Amit’s sister thought they were tensed after hearing the news and discussing about it.

However, when they did not open the door even after 15-20 minutes, Amit’s sister knocked, but did not get any response. She then informed the Kaggalipura police who rushed to the spot and broke open the door only to find the couple hanging to a ceiling fan. The police shifted the bodies to a hospital for post-mortem and have registered a case.