Parents end lives after their son elopes with married woman

BENGALURU: A 52-year-old farmer and his wife committed suicide at Kalligowdanadoddi in Ramanagara district, around 90km south of Bengaluru, on Wednesday night, a week after their son eloped with a married woman, police said on Thursday.
Neighbours found Siddaraju and his wife S Sakamma, 45, dead when they entered the couple’s house on Thursday morning. The couple appeared, prima facie, to have consumed poison, police said.
The couple’s elder son, S Manu, 32, a tractor driver, eloped with a 29-year-old homemaker last week, a police officer said. “Family members said Manu and the woman were in a relationship before she got married to another man in 2016. Manu is a bachelor.” he said.
“Manu and the woman wanted to get married but the families were opposed to the idea because they belonged to different castes,” the officer said.
“The woman’s family later had her married to a man from a neighbouring taluk.”
Manu continued to meet the woman even after she got married, and they eloped from the village last week. The families initially hoped they would return in a day or two, but the woman’s relatives arrived in Manu’s house on Wednesday and asked his parents if they knew where the duo had gone.
“Siddaraju and Sakamma told them they had no idea where the two were,” the officer said. “But the woman’s relatives were angry and refused to take that for an answer. They abused the couple and accused them of concocting a tale after helping Manu elop e with the woman.”
Police have sent the bodies for postmortem to confirm the cause of death.