Kasaragod: A Class 12 student and her father died by suicide at their rented house in an isolated neighbourhood in Kasaragod late on Saturday, August 15. Police said the father had first gone to a neighbour and informed them that his daughter had died before returning home and taking his own life.
The deaths of the father and daughter also came nearly a year after two other people had died by suicide at the same premises, police said.
The deceased were Ganesh S (48), a construction worker and native of Sullia in Dakshina Kannada, and his daughter Vaishnavi (16), a Class 12 science student at Government Higher Secondary School, Paravanadukkam in Chemnad panchayat.
The family lived in a two-storey rented house at Shivapuram, an isolated neighbourhood in Koliyadukkam of Chemnad grama panchayat. There are only three houses in the area, located some distance apart, with Ganesh’s house in the middle.
According to Melparamba Station House Officer – Inspector Raghavan N P, Ganesh returned home at night and found Vaishnavi dead. He then went to a neighbouring house and told the family that his daughter had died. “The neighbour asked him to wait, but Ganesh returned home. The neighbour did not follow him,” Raghavan said.
The neighbours were reluctant to venture out at night because of the isolated nature of the area and the deaths that had occurred there earlier, the officer said. “So they did not follow Ganesh to his house,” the SHO said.
However, someone from the neighbourhood later alerted the police over the landline. Around 10.40 pm, a police team reached the house and found Ganesh’s son, 18-year-old Vishnu G O, trying to enter the house by breaking a window. Vishnu, who works in catering, injured his hand in the attempt. “Our officers moved him aside. The police then broke open the door and entered the house. Ganesh and Vaishnavi were found hanging from the same hook of a ceiling fan,” Raghavan said.
Vaishnavi’s mother Omana, a home nurse from Kozhikode, had been away in Kumbla for the past two weeks for work. Vishnu was also away.
Police said they have not yet established the reason behind the deaths. “The postmortem examination of the girl has not raised any suspicion. The reason behind the deaths needs to be investigated,” the SHO said.
The house where Ganesh and Vaishnavi were found dead had witnessed two other suicides within a span of three months last year, police said.
A young man who was a resident of the two-storey house died by suicide on August 13, 2025, in an incomplete LIFE Mission house next to it. About three months later, in November, his father died by suicide inside the same two-storey house.
Ganesh had left his native place Sullia about 25 years ago and had since been living in rented houses, shifting from one place to another, police said. About three months ago, the family was living at Meeppugiri in Madhur panchayat, on the outskirts of Kasaragod town. They later shifted to Koliyadukkam to be closer to Vaishnavi’s school.
Ganesh’s wife, Omana, has a daughter from a previous marriage. She is married and lives separately.
