Two children spent three days in their home with their dead father before stepping out to get some food.
The incident came to light after the children, a 4-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, reportedly knocked at the neighbor’s door asking for food. They told the neighbor that their father has not been "talking to them".
The neighbor got suspicious and went to check on the man and found him dead. He then immediately alerted the police.
"The children came home crying as their father was not talking to them and neither giving them any food. We later found him dead. It was difficult to stand for a moment inside the house because of the foul smell," the neighbor, who did not wish to be named, told The Times of India.
32-year-old Manoj Dayal's dead body was found hanging from the ceiling at his home in Bareilly in the Indian city of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, June 15.
"The children lived with their father’s body for three days and the hunger forced them to come out," the news outlet quoted a police officer as saying.
According to the police, Dayal, who worked in Noida, had returned to his home due to the Covid-19 lockdown in the city. He had been working from home for much lesser pay.
Police said that the deceased man and his wife had an altercation last week after which she left the two children at their father’s care and began living with her parents.
"The post-mortem report confirmed the cause of death as antemortem hanging. The body was nearly three days old and children were living in the same house with the corpse of their father," Bareilly’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan told the outlet.
The children are under trauma and are currently under the care of a family member.
"They are with their uncle now. No FIR has been lodged as of now and it is a case of suicide," the official said.
Police have not confirmed if they have found a suicide note. It is unclear at this time why Dayal decided to take the deadly step.
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