Child Dead, Mother Unconscious In Maharashtra Hotel Room, Father Missing: Report

A six-year-old girl was found dead and her mother lying unconscious in a hotel room in Maharashtra's Thane, with police suspecting that the woman and her husband had entered into a "suicide pact", an official said today.

The woman's husband is missing following the incident on Monday, he said.

The couple was under debt and had sold their flat in Vasai area of neighbouring Palghar district, the official from the local police station said.

The couple, Rayan and Poonam Brako, 30, along with their daughter Anakya, 6, checked into the hotel in Thane's Mira Road area on Friday, he said.

They allegedly gave poison-laced food to their daughter on Sunday night. Later, the woman also allegedly consumed it. She then gave the poison to her husband, who also consumed it, the official told news agency Press Trust of India.

The hotel staff attended to the family on the intervening night of Sunday-Monday.

On Monday, the woman raised an alarm on seeing her child lying motionless, the official said.

Some medical experts were called and police were alerted.

The minor's body was subsequently sent for a forensic test and the woman was taken to a hospital where she is currently undergoing treatment. The police found a bottle of poison in the hotel room, the official told Press Trust of India.

The woman's husband had apparently left the hotel on Monday and is missing since then, the official told Press Trust of India, adding that they suspect the couple had entered into a "suicide pact".

According to the police, when the man found out that the poison was not acting on his wife, he allegedly tried to strangle her, following which she fell unconscious.

The woman worked as a school teacher till last year, the official said.

Efforts are on to trace her husband, he added.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)