The bodies of Babu Ishwar Thevar, 39, his wife, Amothi, 33, two sons Venkatesh, 10, and Mani, 8, and daughter, Mahalaxmi, 6, were found in their home on Tuesday (August, 5) night.
The couple was living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIVdefine) for two years and had been depressed by news that their daughter also had the HIV virus.
The police think that the parents allegedly fed sweets laced with poison to their two boys, and as the daughter survived eating the poisoned sweets, the parents then smothered her with a pillow before committing suicide.
Bodies of Babu Thevar and Amothi, who lived in a middle-class district of Bombay, were found in a separate room. The couple had hanged themselves from the ceiling by a nylon rope. The dead man's younger brother Armugam found the bodies when he went to the house late that night after work.
"The couple were diagnosed with HIV two years ago and were undergoing treatment," Mumbai police official R.M. Vhatkar reported. "But the suicide was triggered when the daughter too was diagnosed with the same illness."
The couple had not disclosed their infection to anybody except Armugam, who found the bodies.
HIV is a debilitating and deadly disease of the human immune system
define, and is one of the world's most serious health problems. The World Health Organization estimates that about 20 million people have died from AIDS since the infection was first described in 1981.
India is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world, with more than one billion inhabitants. Of this number, it's estimated that around 2.5 million Indians are currently living with HIV, and this is all due to lack of awareness and poor counseling.
The prevalence of HIV/Aids is "high" in Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is capital, according to the country's National Aids Control Organization. In some researches it has been found that that the risk of committing suicide is higher in people who have HIV.
Activists say stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people are widespread in this country. They say that people living with HIV fear to loose their status in the society, hence keep their disease a secret.
In India, the HIV-infected people have faced violent attacks; been rejected by families as well as by spouses and communities. They also have been refused medical treatment, and even, in some reported cases, denied the last rites after they die.
Campaigners say that such harsh reactions to HIV and AIDS make it difficult to educate people about how they can avoid infection.
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