- What a terrible way for kids to find their parents.
A fair warning; this story deals with subjects that some people may find uncomfortable and disturbing. Take another look at that headline and proceed with caution.
If you’d rather not hear about double ritual suicide, don’t scroll past this little kitten.
Right. If you’re still here, there’s no point in beating about to bush.
A family from the state of Gujarat, in western India, recently fell victim to a horrendous tragedy. One Sunday morning, the children of Hemubhai Makhwani, 38, and his wife Hansaben, 35, discovered their parents’ headless bodies.
To make matters worse, there was no murderer to blame for the deaths. It quickly became apparent that the husband and wife had beheaded themselves.
They’d constructed a gruesome contraption that was essentially a homemade guillotine. They willingly put their heads under the device’s blade, severing them simultaneously.
According to Hindustan Times, the Makhwanis committed suicide out of religious fervor. The authorities said they offered their heads — and lives — as sacrifices to the Hindu god Shiva.
The Incident
It doesn’t seem that the macabre ritual suicide was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Sub-inspector Indrajeetsinh Jadeja from the police department of Vinchhiya told Hindustan Times that the couple had been drawn to their religious practices a good while ago.
According to Jadeja, the victims had been secluding themselves daily to a hut on their family farm for more than a year. Within the hut, they would offer prayers to the god Shiva at an altar, known as shivling, they had constructed.
Shiva is one of Hinduism’s principal deities, although his role varies between different strains of Hinduism. He’s at times revered as a great creator and the supreme teacher of yoga — but also as a god of destruction.
What exactly spurred the couple to take their own lives remains a mystery. All that is known is that the couple sent their 12- and 13-year-old children to their uncle’s house the day before their suicide.
Then, on the night between April 15 and 16, they put their suicidal plan into action.
“The couple first prepared a fire altar before putting their heads under a guillotine-like mechanism held by a rope,” explained Jadeja.
The fire pit, called havan kund, is used to make offerings in many Hindu ceremonies. The usual offerings include aromatic spices, herbs, and food, like butter, honey, flowers, or fruit.
“As soon as they released the rope, an iron blade fell on them, severing their heads, which rolled into the fire,” said Jadeja.
The Suicide Note
To make matters worse, the ones to discover the Makhwanis corpses would be their children. When they returned home on April 16, they found their parents in the secluded hut.
According to the police, the victims’ cell phones were found near their bodies — along with a suicide note. Unfortunately, the note sheds little light on why they ended their lives in such a gruesome manner.
In the note, the couple pleads their younger relatives to take care of their children and elderly parents. Hemubhai Makhwani further detailed that he trusts his brothers and that his in-laws had never chided or reprimanded him.
But why commit suicide? The note mentions that Hansaben was “not well,” but doesn’t provide any further explanation.
Hansaben Makhwani’s cousin, Jayanti Jatapara, was at a loss over the couple’s motive. Talking to the Times of India, Jatapara said they didn’t face any financial difficulties, nor were there any arguments within the family.
The police were equally in the dark — or at least wouldn’t say anything. Despite the seemingly religious nature of the suicide, Jadeja said the police hadn’t confirmed for certain whether it was part of any “superstitious or black magic ritual.”
“We are recording statements of the family members and trying to know the reason behind the couple’s extreme step,” said Jadeja.
“We will get a clear picture once we record statements of all the family members.”
Although the details aren’t clear, no outside foul play is suspected. The police are investigating the matter as an accidental death.
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