Dad allegedly slits kids' throats, drinks poison with wife in suicide pact

A couple in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh allegedly consumed poison on Saturday, before the man slit the throats of their two children in an apparent suicide pact that left two members of the family dead.

The couple, identified as Ravi Thakre and his wife Ranjana Thakre, consumed the poison before the husband used a floor tile cutter to slit the throats of their 16-year-old son Chirag and 14-year-old daughter Gunjan. The incident took place while the two children were asleep in the family's Sahara Estate Colony home in Bhopal, The Times of India reported.

The son died on the spot, but the electric tile cutter allegedly broke as it was being used on Gunjan. Their 56-year-old father died shortly after.

The woman went out and informed a neighbor about the incident, and the neighbor reported it to authorities. Ranjana and her daughter were taken to Hamidia Hospital in critical condition, where they are undergoing treatment.

The woman told police she and her husband consumed poison at around 2 a.m. Saturday before she fell unconscious, assistant superintendent Rajesh Bhadouria said.

"It is suspected that the man and his wife fed something to their children due to which they were fast asleep when their throats were slit," superintendent Sai Krishna S. Thota said.

The scene of the incident reportedly had blood stains all over the walls and floor.

Misrod police later recovered a four-page suicide note written by the civil engineering graduate father, who claimed that he had been unemployed for the last three months and that the family was going through a financial crisis, according to Thota.

The family reportedly had an outstanding balance of over Rs 10 lakh ($13,600) for a housing loan they took out to purchase a house in 2012.

The note also mentioned that the children's school fees had been unpaid in the past two years. Chirag and Gunjan were Class 11 and 8 students, respectively, at a private school in Ratanpur, according to the report.

Ravi allegedly decided to take his children's lives as he feared they would not have a good future after he died.

Police also recovered from the scene a 0.5-liter bottle of pesticide as well as the floor tile cutter machine used.