All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS) Forensic Department published its report of the ‘first and unique suicide pact’ in South Delhi in lado Sarai where a couple had ended their lives after their only son had died.
Prof Dr Sudhir Gupta, the HOD of Forensic Department, told The Pioneer, “Choosing a violent method, such as jumping from a height in a suicide pact has not been reported in the scientific literature yet. This rare case of ‘Dyadic Death’ has now been published in the International Journal of American Academy of Forensic Science.”
In medical literature, such kind of death is called a dyadic death. Previously AIIMS has witnessed suicide pact cases in form of hanging, gunshots, poisoning by carbon monoxide and drowning, said Dr Gupta.
The report noted that the injury pattern on both victims were different, as wife landed on feet and the man landed on head. The deceased laxmichandra die due to carniocerebal injury whereas Babita cause of death was polytrauma.
Another author, (Prof) Dr Abhishek Yadav, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at AIIMS said in suicide pact two persons mutually decide to end their lives together because of love and closeness between them and sometimes due to social reasons too.
Dr Yadav said, “This is for the first time we have encountered a case, where couple committed suicide by jumping from a building by tying their hands with each other to make sure that nobody should survive so as to terminate their grief and because their hands were tied the impacts on both the bodies were totally different.”
The tragic incident had stirred a debate about the quality of treatment in the city hospitals. The couple laxmichandra and Babita hailed from Kendrapada (Odisha) and lived in Delhi with their seven-year-old son Avinash Raut.
The child had died at Batra hospital due to dengue after being referred from hospital to another. The child was denied timely treatment as the tertiary care hospitals failed to provide optimum healthcare.
The autopsy report of the duo revealed that they had jumped from 12-metre-high building with their wrists tied to each other (tied with a cloth). The duo left a suicide note which cited death of their only child as the reason for their harsh decision.