6 of family found dead in car in Panchkula, another dies on way to hospital

 

 

 

SIX members of a family, including three children, were found dead inside a car in Haryana’s Panchkula, while another died on his way to a hospital, police said on Tuesday, suspecting a suicide pact. The car was spotted late on Monday evening by a passerby, who even exchanged a few words with the family member who died last. Police identified the deceased as Praveen Mittal (41), his wife, the couple’s three minor children -- two of them twin girls -- and his parents.

 

The car with a Dehradun registration number was found parked on the roadside in a residential area in Panchkula’s Sector 27. Puneet Rana, a local, told reporters that he was out on a walk with another person and they spotted the car around 10 pm with a towel hanging out from one of its doors. Rana said he found the car unlocked and opened one of the doors. The man inside told him that he could not get a hotel room while returning from a Bageshwar Dham event in Panchkula and hence, he and his family were sleeping in the car. Rana said when he pointed a torch towards a window of the car, he saw six people lying motionless on each other with vomit on them. The seventh person, the man he was speaking to, was breathing with difficulty, he added. His suspicions stoked, the passerby helped the man out, gave him water and asked him if he had killed the other occupants of the car.

 

“He then told me that all his family members had committed suicide and he too was going to die in five minutes. And then he collapsed,” Rana said. “Before collapsing, he said he owed a lot of money to banks. He said their relatives were rich but were not helping,” he added. By this time, a crowd gathered and alerted police. Though police reached the spot fairly quickly, the ambulance took around 40 minutes to arrive. Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Himadree Kaushik said, “Prima facie, it appears to be a matter of suicide. However, further investigations are on.” She said six occupants of the car were taken to a private hospital, while one was taken to the civil hospital. “All seven died,” the officer added. The cause of the deaths appears to be poisoning, police said.