Father in credit card debt jumps off roof with daughter and wife follows

Police say a whole family in India jumped from the roof of their apartment building after struggling with more than £9,000 worth of debt.

Officers were called to the home in the Shahdara suburb of the capital Delhi after the 35-year-old man, his wife and three-year-old daughter were all found lying in the street in the early hours of Monday morning.

The father, who reportedly worked in data entry with a top consulting firm in neighbouring Gurgaon city, spoke to his wife the night before about killing himself to “end all their problems”, a senior police officer told the Indian Express.

The man then woke up at 3am and, taking his daughter from their ground floor flat, went up to the rooftop terrace and threw himself off with the girl in his arms. His wife, who had followed him and saw what happened, jumped herself around a minute later, according to police.

All three were rushed to hospital but the father, identified by the Press Trust of India as Suresh Kumar, was declared dead on arrival.

Both the mother and daughter were described as being in a stable condition, having suffered multiple injuries. Police said of the mother, who was the least injured, that “her fall was broken by electric wires”.

A posthumous criminal case has been registered against the man for attempted murder, and police have interviewed the wife since her ordeal.

She told police in a statement that her husband had multiple credit cards with several banks and had run up a significant debt of 800,000 rupees (£9,300).

“My husband was depressed and didn’t know how to repay the banks. We asked our family members to give us some money and help us but nobody came to our rescue. Around 3am, he woke up and took our daughter to the terrace and jumped. I decided to end my life as well and jumped after them,” her statement read.

The woman’s brother said the extended family was aware of their financial problems and had tried to help. The family were staying rent-free in an apartment owned by the wife’s father, he said. “We didn’t know they would take such measures,” he told reporters.

The case highlights the lack of a social safety net for families, and particularly fathers, who in conservative India continue to face huge pressures to provide for the household.

More than 133,000 people killed themselves in India in 2015, the latest year for which official data are available. Of these, the suicides of more than 4,000 men, and almost 300 women, were officially registered as being the result of “bankruptcy or indebtedness”.

While the issue is less widely covered in urban areas, the phenomenon of farmer suicides - in part as a result of indebtedness - have become a major political issue. As he swept to power for a second term in May, prime minister Narendra Modi promised farmers interest-free loans, state pensions and cash benefits.