Mandya: The tragic deaths of three members of a family in Mandya, Karnataka, has sparked a debate on whether government policies like free bus rides for women are impacting local businesses adversely.
Prabhakar (65), a businessman from the town allegedly killed his wife and son before taking his own life. In a suicide note, he spoke of mounting debts and declining business due to women travelling free to larger cities for their shopping.
Prabhakar owned a readymade garments store, Kamadhenu Kalpavruksha, in Mandya. He allegedly strangled his 55-year-old wife, Jyothi, using a dhoti at around 3.30 am. When his 30-year-old son, J P Santosh tried to intervene, he too was killed, the police said.
The trader then locked the house, walked to his shop located a short distance away and hanged himself.
Investigation has revealed that Prabhakar’s family once jointly operated the well-known Kamadhenu Vastralaya in Mandya. The family business was divided about five years ago, following which Prabhakar started his own venture, Kamadhenu Kalpavruksha. He had reportedly taken loans from banks and private financiers to establish and run the business.
The trader claimed that his business suffered significantly after the launch of Karnataka’s Shakti scheme, which provides free bus travel to women, in his suicide note.
Easier and more affordable travel encouraged women shoppers from Mandya to visit larger commercial hubs such as Mysuru and Bengaluru, located roughly one to one-and-a-half hours away, where they had access to wider shopping options and bigger retail markets, Prabhakar wrote.
The police are investigating the claims made in the note and examining all circumstances that may have contributed to the tragedy, News18 reported.
Santosh had married 27-year-old Meghana barely six weeks ago. The young woman has claimed that she was sleeping in another room at the time of the incident, and had not heard any disturbance during the night.
Meghana said she and her husband had gone to sleep together the previous night and that she was unaware of when he left the room.
She woke up around 6 am, prepared vegetables for breakfast and then went to wake her mother-in-law. Upon entering the room, she found her husband’s body slumped behind the door and discovered that her mother-in-law was unresponsive. She immediately alerted neighbours, Meghana told the television channel.
Investigators are also trying to determine how Prabhakar was able to overpower both his wife and adult son.
