Manjeet Chaudhary, 11, Binita, nine, and Sudeep, seven, died on Saturday evening while their mother Sibati is undergoing treatment at the Narayani Sub-regional Hospital in Birgunj. [break]
“The mother was in an unconscious state, while her three children were dead when the police reached the incident site at around 6:30 in the evening,” Inspector at the Area Police Office, Chandranigahapur Gautam Mishra said.
“Preliminary report indicates they attempted group suicide. More will be revealed once the mother regains consciousness,” Mishra added.
Sibati had left her home at Dumariya-6, Balchanpuri in Rautahat early in the morning, police said quoting her neighbors. Herdsmen said she was sitting on the bank of Bagmati river with her children just before they drowned.
“The next thing we knew was they had drowned in the river. The children had already died when we took them out of the river,” Mishra quoted the herdsmen as saying. Eyewitnesses said the children were draped by the mother´s sari when they were taken out. “She murmured ´Why did you save me?´ before passing out after we rescued her,” locals claimed.
Sibati´s husband Santa Lal has been working in Saudi Arabia for the past one-and-a-half years and she has been staying with Santa Lal´s parents and younger sister, according to her brother Ram Babu Chaudhary.
Sibati, who had not regained consciousness till Sunday afternoon, has been referred to Kathmandu for further treatment. “We are thinking about taking her to Kathmandu or Patna (India),” her mother Paltaniya Devi said. “She had never complained of anything with us previously,” the sad mother added.
Meanwhile, Sibati´s in-laws have claimed that the accident occurred while she had gone to Shiva´s temple in Nunthar for worship. “She has not attempted group suicide as reported in the media,” a neighbor claimed. “The accident may have occurred after the kids playing on the banks fell into the river,” he added.
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