1Senior Resident, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, AFMC, Pune
2Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
3Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, AFMC, Pune
Suicide by hanging usually takes place in a secluded spot. The act is rarely committed in front of any witness. We report an unusual case, where a 32 year old male committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan inside his bedroom in front of his spouse. The victim asked his wife to lock the bedroom door from outside and handed over the key through window. He tied the hands of the wife to the window grill of the bedroom with the help of a ligature and convinced her to watch a stunt performed by him mimicking the act of hanging. During the process, the chair on which the victim was standing broke resulting in death due to hanging. As per the investigating officer the victim was suffering from severe depression due to recent loss of job. After thorough investigation the police concluded the death to be a planned suicide in front of the spouse. The case presented here has not been reported earlier in forensic literature.
Planned-hanging, Witness, Suicide, Spouse
