GHAZIABAD: A 42-year-old man running losses in his business allegedly poisoned his two children to death and committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of his home in Sihani village on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.Police said the man, Sunderpal, maintained a diary and had on Monday written it would be his “last day” if a loan of Rs 6.9 lakh was not disbursed to him. He gave a poison-laced sweet dish to Tushar, his 15-year-old physically challenged son, and Mahi, his 11-year-old daughter, before hanging himself using a bedsheet. His wife Sashi and their youngest son, Naman (5), were asleep in an adjacent room.Suderpal had been running an eatery in Manali for the past two and a half years. He had come home in January this year because of snowfall in the hill town and was planning to return on March 15. Sources said that after coming back from Manali, Sunderpal had confined himself to his house and seldom ventured out. He had also started keeping distance from relatives and neighbours.The alleged murder and suicide came to light around 3am on Tuesday when Shashi woke up and found the light of Sunderpal’s room switched on. When she entered, she found her two children lying unconscious on the bed and Sunderpal hanging from the ceiling fan with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck. She raised the alarm and woke up her father-in-law, Bhagwan Singh. Neighbours flocked to the house and brought the body down. Police reached the spot around 3.30am and sent the three bodies for autopsy.Hours before the alleged suicide, Sunderpal had bought sweets for the family but kept them in his room. He also played Ludo with Tushar and Mahi till late that night and wanted his wife and the third son to join them in the game. But Shashi, who works with the health department in its door-to-door pulse polio campaign, had to wake up early the next morning and Naman had his exams. So, they decided to go to sleep instead in another room.Sunderpal’s father Bhagwan Singh, who had retired as a gardener in Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation in 2013, said Mahi’s results for her Class V exams were to be declared on Tuesday. “She was quite excited about it and had asked me to accompany her to school,” he said.According to police, Sunderpal had been facing financial losses in his business for the past few years. Prior to opening the eatery in Manali, he used to run a taxi service. After suffering losses in the taxi business, he switched to the eating joint, but that, too, was not doing well. His younger brother Anuj assisted him at work and is in Manali at present.Entries made by Sunderpal in his diary mentioned a loan of Rs 6.9 lakh, which had been sanctioned to him on March 6, but was yet to be disbursed. He wrote that a person to whom he had spoken had assured him that the loan would be disbursed on March 7. Sunderpal had made three more entries on March 7, 8 and 11 and expressed anguish over not getting the money. In his last entry, he wrote that if the money was not disbursed by 5 pm, it would be his last line in the diary. He signed off saying it would be his “last day”.Police suspect Sunderpal became a victim of an insurance fraud and had been lured into investing money against the promise of a loan.“We have got a letter from the family apprising us about the incident. There is no complaint against anyone as of now,” said Sanjay Kumar Pandey, SHO of the local police station.

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