Rajkot: Three members of a family died after allegedly poisoning themselves at their home in Ajanta Park on Sadhu Vaswani Road on Monday afternoon, with police investigating whether financial distress or pressure from moneylenders had caused the triple suicide.The deceased are retired PWD employee Dilip Khakkhar, 73, his wife Smita, 65, and their son Nishit, 32.The three were rushed to Rajkot Civil Hospital after the poison began taking effect. Smita was declared dead first, while Dilip and Nishit, died a few hours later. No criminal offence has been registered yet. Police have registered an unnatural death and are making inquiries.Assistant commissioner of police Rajesh Bariya said investigators are trying to ascertain what prompted the family to take the step.Police are also probing if Nishit had suffered losses in business or borrowed money at high rates of interest. His financial dealings, friends and recent activities are being examined. Call detail records and bank statements of all three family members have been sought.According to police sources, Nishit called a friend after the family poisoned themselves, told him what had happened and pleaded with him to save his parents. The friend alerted Nishit’s relatives, after which the three were taken to hospital.No suicide note was recovered from the family’s residence during the preliminary search.
