Woman, five daughters jump to death before speeding train

Mahasamund, Jun 10: A woman and her five daughters allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving train apparently after a domestic dispute in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district, police said on Thursday.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has directed the district administration to conduct a probe into the incident, that took place late Wednesday night, and take necessary action.
The bodies were recovered on Thursday morning from the railway tracks near Imlibhata canal bridge between Mahasamund and Belsonda, around 55 km from the state capital, police said. As per preliminary information, Uma Sahu (45), a native of Bemcha village, had a quarrel with her husband on Wednesday.
After the tiff, the woman along with her daughters – Annapurna (18), Yashoda (16), Bhumika (14), Kumkum (12) and Tulsi (10) – rushed to the railway tracks, located around 1.5 km from their village, and took the extreme step, Mahasamund’s Additional Superintendent of Police Megha Tembhurkar Sahu told PTI. After being alerted in the morning, a police team reached the spot and sent the bodies for postmortem, she said.
“Prima facie, it seems the woman had a fight with her husband following which she took the extreme step along with her daughters,” Sahu said.
No suicide note has been found so far and an investigation into the case is underway, she added.
Chief Minister Baghel expressed grief over the incident and directed the district administration and police to conduct a probe into it and take necessary action, an official statement said.
A preliminary probe suggested that Uma Sahu’s husband Kejau Ram Sahu, who was living with his family in his own house in Bemcha village, worked as a labourer at a rice mill in Mudhena village and owned 1.75 acre of land, the release issued by the public relations department said.
“Prima facie, a family dispute on Wednesday night seems to be the cause of the incident, but further probe into the matter is underway,” it said.
Meanwhile, the woman’s husband told reporters in Mahasamund that he was drunk on Wednesday evening and had a minor quarrel with her over household expenses after dinner around 7 pm.
Then, I went to sleep and my wife along with the daughters left the home. I tried to locate them at night and when I did not find them, I thought they would come back in the morning and I returned home. I came to know about the incident this morning, he said.