COVID Widow Jumps To Death With Minor Son, Suicide Note Puts Neighbors In The Dock

A 44-year-old woman has allegedly jumped to death with her minor son from the 12th floor of a building. Police have arrested a man in connection with the deaths.

The incident happened in the wee hours of Monday in Mumbai, the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The victims were identified as Reshma Trenchil, a homemaker, and her 10-year-old son, Garud, The Indian Express reported.

According to police officials, the woman, who recently lost her husband and in-laws to COVID-19, left behind a note accusing her neighbors of harassing her.

Police have registered a case of abetment to suicide against a family – an elderly couple, Ayub Khan and his wife, and their son -- living in the same building based on the note left by Trenchil. The couple’s son, Shadad Khan, was arrested Tuesday evening.

According to the report, Trenchil’s husband Sarat Mulukutla, 49, who was working with an online trading platform for agriculture commodities, had gone to Varanasi to look after his COVID-infected parents earlier this year and ended up contracting the virus himself.

His parents succumbed to the infection and Mulutkula also died on May 23, police said.

Trenchil was unable to attend her husband’s funeral and wrote a social media post about the pain she went through after his death. Police said the woman was “depressed” about losing her husband and not being able to attend his funeral.

The woman had moved to an apartment in the building on April 10 as a tenant. In the note, the woman said that her downstairs neighbors had made several complaints against her to society board members and local police saying that her son made a lot of noise, The Indian Express report said.

A police official said: “Harassment by neighbors is one of the reasons (behind the deaths) but she has not made any specific allegations against them. Just that they complained against her. Also, she never approached us against them.”

Police had visited the woman’s apartment once after the neighbor’s complaints. A security guard from her building had also asked Trenchil not to make the noise.

Police officials said that as per the initial investigation, Ayub Khan and his wife suffered from several health issues and were on bed rest. So they used to complain about the noise emanating from the Trenchil's home as it would disturb the family, they added, The Times Of India reported.

It said that Trenchil’s brother is reaching India from the United States to conduct the last rites of the deceased woman and her son.

Earlier this month, a couple in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh killed their two minor children before hanging themselves due to financial issues.