Bangalore woman follows her lover to the grave

A 22-year-old woman committed suicide on Friday, two days after her lover — a married man with three children — had ended his life.

Jina, a resident of Indira Harijana Seva Colony, set herself on fire at her house on Friday morning. She suffered 90% burns and died at the scene, police said.

Her neighbour and lover, Mukunda, 26, hanged himself from a tree near his house on Wednesday night. It has been suspected that Jina committed suicide since she could not bear the loss of her lover.

Mukunda had been married to Asha for the past five years, and he developed the illicit affair a couple of years ago. Police said Asha used to pick up frequent fights with her alcoholic husband over his affair. Both the women too had often quarrelled over the issue.

Asha had warned Jina on Wednesday morning against continuing the affair. Mukunda was depressed over the incident, and that night returned home drunk. Around midnight, he left home, and was found hanging the next morning.

Mukunda had earlier promised his wife that they would shift their residence away from Jina, but never kept his word, since his lover had been opposed to the idea.

Police said Jina, a class 10 dropout, had been attending a tailoring class. Mukunda was a carpenter.