Four members of a family,including two children,were found dead at their home in a residential complex in Kothrud on Thursday morning. They have been dead since Sunday,the police said. The incident,however,came to light around 10.30 am on Thursday when neighbours called the police complaining of a bad smell coming from their residence. Chandmal Chaganlal Agarwal (46),his wife,Rajkumari,and two children may have consumed pesticide,the police said. The Kothrud police have found a suicide note on the spot,saying that Agarwal was receiving threatening calls from debtors. It is suspected that he was in financial trouble,police said. Agarawal was running two shops in the city,one dealing in CDs and DVDs. Police said Agarwals wife was a cancer patient in the terminal stages. His son Vishal was a student of Class VI and daughter Kareena was studying in the Class VIII at Mahesh Vidyalay. Agarwal was a native of Rajasthan. He had settled in Pune few years ago and had been residing in a rented apartment at B K Avenue Society for the last two-and-a-half years. The police got keys of the house from the apartment owner Purushottam Ghawalkar. On going inside,they found four bodies in the bedroom,in an advanced stage of decay. The suicide note in Hindi was written in a diary that was found on the refrigerator. Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Phadtare said,From the suicide note we suspect that Agarwal was debt-ridden. He has also mentioned names of few persons who were making the calls regarding the money that Agarwal owed to them. We will investigate the case thoroughly. According to police inspector Chandrakant Ghodke of Kothrud police station,the primary investigation revealed that Agarwal was operating two shops. But details of his second shop were yet to be ascertained. The police is trying to contact their relatives,friends and employees. We have not yet spoken to the relatives and shop employees of Agarwal. Prima-facie it appears that he was debt-ridden. An income tax raid had also taken place at his house earlier, said Ghodke. The Agarwals were staying in my flat for the last 15 months and were regular in paying rent every month. But he was under tension; he told me once that his wife could not be cured as her cancer was in the last stage, Ghawalkar said. The family mostly spoke in Hindi. Agarwals wife rarely interacted with the neighbours though the children had friends in the society, he added. Sudam Bhairat,the security guard at B K Avenue,said he saw Agarwal last on Sunday. Few persons from his shop came here on Monday. They inquired about Agarwal and also contacted him on telephone. But they left as nobody picked up the phone, he said. The bodies have been taken for post mortem at Sassoon Hospital and samples of leftover of pesticide found near the bodies were sent for forensic tests.
