"He Was Our World": Chhattisgarh Couple Dies By Suicide After Son's Death In Accident

A Chhattisgarh village woke up to a silence it will never forget. Under the shade of a neem tree in the courtyard of their modest home in Dhardei, the bodies of Krishna Patel and his wife Rama Bai were found hanging together, bound not just by a saree noose, but by a grief they could no longer carry.

In Janjgir-Champa district's Shivrinarayan police station area, neighbours first noticed the stillness. By morning, word had spread across the village like a tremor. People gathered, stunned. Some wept openly. Others stood frozen.

The couple had left behind a four-page suicide note and a video message. What they wrote, and what they said, has left the entire community in tears.

Their only son, Aditya Patel, 21, had died in a road accident in 2024 in the Masturi police station area. For Krishna (48), a mason by profession, and Rama Bai (47), a homemaker, Aditya was their world.

In his note, Krishna wrote that Aditya was "our lives' foundation, our world... an obedient son and a friend." He described him as a blessing from God who had filled their home with laughter and who cared for them like a parent.

But after the accident, the house fell quiet. Krishna wrote of the day Aditya had gone out with a village priest to assist with temple work and a yagna. Aditya had hesitated, he said. But Krishna insisted, "It was God's work." In the letter, he called it "the biggest mistake of my life."

"He left me forever," he wrote. "We were alive... but I was not living."

Police officials from Rahoud outpost confirmed that the couple hanged themselves late Sunday night using a saree tied to a neem tree in their courtyard. A wall near the tree suggested they used it to climb before ending their lives.

Outpost in charge Satyam Chauhan said that a suicide note was recovered at the scene. In it, the couple clearly mentioned that the unbearable grief of losing their only son had driven them to take this step.

Over the past year, villagers say the couple had withdrawn into themselves. They rarely smiled. The courtyard where Aditya once sat now stood empty.

In his final words, Krishna wrote that after a year of pain, something inside him had shifted. The anguish had not disappeared; it had simply transformed.

"God is gracious," he wrote. "After long suffering, my mind is now at peace. I feel drawn toward Him. My destiny is to merge with God."

Before hanging themselves, Krishna and Rama Bai recorded a video. In it, they spoke to their lawyer calmly. They requested that the compensation money received after Aditya's accident be transferred to their elder brothers, Kulbhara Patel and Jalbhara Patel.

"If we are no longer alive," they said in the video, "please ensure our son Aditya's claim money goes to our elder brothers. This is our request."

In the suicide note, they wrote, "We are both consciously and willingly offering ourselves to Lord Shiva. No one is to blame for this. Please bid us farewell with a happy heart."

And again, "Do not grieve for us. We are leaving this world in complete peace, without desire, and in a joyful spirit."

On Monday morning, police arrived after neighbours alerted them. The bodies were brought down and sent for a postmortem. A case has been registered, and investigations are underway.