Dubai: A clearer picture is emerging regarding the events behind the discovery of the bodies of a couple and their daughter in their Dubai flat on Tuesday, say relatives and friends of the family.
Escalating debt in the family business to the tune of Dh1.5 million over three years may have driven Santhosh Kumar, a well-known film producer from Kerala, to take the extreme step.
The bodies were found on Tuesday by police. The couple had their arteries slashed and police said the child had been suffocated with a pillow although it’s unclear who committed the latter act.
The film producers association in Kerala announced plans to hold a condolence meeting in the state.
The immediate relatives of the deceased, meanwhile, are still to come to terms with the tragedy as they make plans for funeral services.
Kumar’s only brother, who works in Oman, is expected to fly in today and the bodies are likely to be cremated in Dubai, even as some Dubai friends who were on vacation in Kerala are rushing back to the city for the cremation rites.
A close friend told Gulf News on Thursday that many of the relatives of the deceased in Kerala were feeling insecure about coming to Dubai for the funeral rites as they feared personal creditors would clamour for the money Kumar had borrowed from them.
“There are many personal lenders, it appears, and they are likely to request relatives to pay them off. That is why many are keeping away,” said the friend.
A general maintenance company in Karama owned by Kumar in Dubai was in dire financial straits, relatives and friends added.
Only four people were employed at the maintenance business since December last year and all of them had worked for Kumar without being paid for nearly a year, said a close associate of the deceased who did not want his name disclosed.
The associate detailed the family’s financial troubles. “The trouble really started three years ago in our business when some contractors’ cheques bounced. We had big contracts and, with the bouncing of some cheques, we were unable to pay our sub-contractors. We were expecting a payment of Dh500,000 and, when those cheques bounced, it threw our financial planning into disarray. All our cash holdings dried up and then nearly 10 of our painters from Bangladesh went to court for non-payment of salaries. The court ruled in their favour and Kumar had to make arrangements through his own cash resources to the tune of Dh100,000 to resolve the case. Those painters left and we had no more workers to carry out other jobs and, like dominoes, the whole business collapsed.
“We had contractors and sub-contractors queuing up for payments. Everything was in total disarray. A few months ago, Kumar managed some liquidity — maybe he borrowed or disposed off some property in India — but he settled most of the payments. He had approximately Dh700,000 liability outstanding. He had some property in Kerala, which he could have used to raise the amount; however, this was mostly in his wife’s family and it seemed a little difficult for him to dispose of it,” he said.
Kumar’s company had been afloat on goodwill since the four employees remained loyal to him, the associate said.
“Until last week, he reported to work every single day and I always felt he would think of a way to diffuse the crisis. In fact, on July 9, when he did not turn up, I called him and he told me he was in Abu Dhabi. Later I had some calls from the CID and I never thought it was about his death. I thought it was regarding bounced cheques and I took his passport and went to the police station to enquire about it.”
Throwing light on why a person is driven to take such an extreme step, clinical psychologist Mary John from the Dubai Community Health Centre explained: “When a person decides to take his own life and that of his loved ones, he is in a state of absolute helplessness and alienation. Had his kith and kin or parents been there, he would not have felt such an isolation. It also means that he was depressed for some time and looked at this as a final solution to his problems. If a person who is away from his close ones goes through such extreme stress, he or she should seek immediate professional help. He must confide in close friends, relatives and family who he can trust and urge them to come up with solutions. Every problem has a solution and, by sharing his problems, he could have averted this tragedy.”
