A tragic case of mass suicide of a family from Uttarakhand has come to light in Haryana. Six members of a family were found dead inside a locked car in Panchkula district. The seventh member, a man, was found sitting outside the car, claiming to die in next five minutes, then he died later. Preliminary investigation suggests that the family was under heavy debt and killed themselves in a suicide pact.
The victims were identified as Praveen Mittal, 42, along with his elderly parents, wife, two daughters, and a son. The family was from Barwala and currently lived in Dehradun.
A video has surfaced regarding the case, in which Praveen Mittal is seen sitting along the ramp and his neck is slightly bent.
As per reports, the family had parked the car in front of a house in Sector 27 of Panchkula and Praveen Mittal was sitting by the car, on the pavement. Puneet Rana, a local resident spotted the car parked behind his vehicle and towels were hanging on the glass of the car.
"I, and my house owner, approached the man and asked him about his whereabouts. He said, the family was returning from a Hanuman Katha program organised by Bageshwar Dham. As they didn't find any hotel, they decided to spend the night in the car. I asked him to move the car to the market area," said Puneet.
Praveen got up to move the car but Puneet was not convinced. He returned to the car and peeped inside with the help of mobile phone light and what he saw was horrifying - six dead bodies and a stinking car.
"I saw six people lying flat. They had vomited on each other. The car was stinking. I pulled the man away and asked what the matter was. He then said that the family has died in a suicide pact and he will also die in another five minutes. The man claimed to be under huge debt," Puneet recalled.
As per Puneet, the police reached the spot in two minutes. But the ambulance reached the spot after about 45 minutes. Praveen told Puneet that his relatives are very rich, but no one helped him.
Police is investigating and the bodies have been kept in the hospital for post-mortem.
Panchkula DCP Himadri Kaushik said, "We received information that six people have been brought to Ojas Hospital. When we reached there, we learnt they were declared dead."
"Another person was brought to the Civil Hospital, Sector 6. He has also been declared dead. Some facts make it clear it is a case of suicide. We are collecting scientific evidence to assess the matter," she added.
The Police have recovered a suicide note, details of which are yet to be disclosed.
