Techie, wife commit suicide after ’happy life’

IANS

Panaji, 08 October 2011: A 39-year-old techie working for a Florida-based company and his wife hanged themselves in their flat here, saying they were committing suicide because they had "lived a very eventful and happy life together", police said on Saturday.

 

Police had to break down the door of their flat at Merces on the outskirts of Panaji after neighbours noticed stench emanating from the house. The couple hanged themselves on Thursday from two nooses suspended from a ceiling hook, police said.

 

A suicide note addressed to ’whomsoever concerned’ by the couple - Anand and Deepa Ranthideva, 36 - said in a clinically, calm tenor, that they were ending their lives because they had "lived a very eventful and happy life together".

 

The note also went on to say that Ravi and Deepa believed in the philosophy that their life belonged to them alone and they "had the right to choose death as much as they had the right to live" and they had travelled the world, made money and lived life to the fullest.

 

Police inspector FX Corte said along with the note, they had also found a document which listed a couple of properties they owned and an inventory-like wish list of items to be handed over to their kith, kin and friends.

 

"We have done our basic enquiries. Anand originally hailed from Tamil Nadu and worked for a US-based software firm called Talisma. He was in India for a while now. His wife was from Bangalore," Corte said.

 

When asked if police would take the contents of the suicide note at face value, the official said they would conduct their own enquiries into the deaths.

 

"We are going to conduct our own investigations. We have already registered a complaint of unnatural death," Corte said.

 

Police sources said Anand had strained relations with his parents, who on Saturday told the police in writing to dispose of the bodies "because they were too old to travel".

 

"According to our enquiries, Anand had cut himself off from his parents and efforts made by them to get in touch with the son were futile," a police official said. "They led a posh lifestyle and largely kept to themselves, according to their neighbours," he added.

 

The official said Anand had also done a teaching stint during his sabbatical from the IT industry at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), located near Panaji, as an assistant professor for information systems.