Murder accused, lover commit suicide in Shimla

SHIMLA - A man accused of murder in Chhattisgarh and his girlfriend committed suicide at a hotel in the Himachal Pradesh capital here Monday, police said.

“Sudheesh Singh, 30, who was accused of murdering Avinash Ramteke, and his girlfriend Devi Vaid were found unconscious in a hotel in the Lakkar Bazaar area of the city early Monday. They were taken to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital by the hotel staff, where the man was declared brought dead. The woman died this (Monday) morning,” Superintendent of Police R.M. Sharma told IANS.

Police officer Shakuntala Sharma said two suicide notes were recovered from Flora hotel, where they had been staying since June 19.

“In one of the suicide notes, Singh claimed that ‘I am solely responsible for the murder of Avinash’. In the second note, he said that ‘We are committing the suicide on our own and nobody is responsible for this (act)’. Both the handwritten notes were in Hindi,” she said.

Sharma said the couple, who made a entry in hotel register as husband and wife, died after consuming some poisonous substance.

According to police, Avinash’s murder in Chhattisgarh took place in the last week of May and since then Sudheesh, who was private secretary to Kurud legislator Lekram Sahu, had been absconding.

Avinash’s body was recovered from Magarlod tehsil in Dhamtari district and police of Durg and Dhamtari districts were jointly conducting the murder probe, police said.

Police said as per formation provided by Durg police, the couple was known to Avinash and Sudheesh committed the murder in revenge as the marriage of Devi and Avinash was finalised by their families.

“Relatives of the couple have been informed about the crime,” the police officer said.