Mumbai Ryan Stephen Joseph Bracko, the 37-year-old who has been booked along with his wife for the murder of their seven-year-old daughter in a failed suicide pact, claimed before the police that he apparently tried to end his life by jumping in front of a local train after the incident, but couldn’t.
The senior police inspector of Kashimira police station, Sanjay Hazare, said that Ryan told them that his ‘inner voice’ stopped him from jumping in front of the train at Mira Road station. He further bought alcohol, but could not drink the booze as he was feeling queasy and nauseous due to the rat poison he had earlier consumed. The police have seized the alcohol bottle.
Both Ryan and his wife Poonam (30) are currently admitted in the Tembha civic hospital to flush out the toxins from their system. “Post discharge, we will arrest the couple. We have also pressed Section 309 (attempt to suicide) besides Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code against them,” said Hazare.
The police also found that the man had a debt of around ₹50 lakh. As his creditors were demanding their money back, he sold the flat in Vasai (E) for more than ₹30 lakh and paid back some of the amount. He also spent around ₹6 lakh in various Mira Road bars and other vices.
On Monday, the staff of the hotel off the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway had found the body of the child after they heard Poonam scream for help from the room. Ryan had already absconded by then.
After scouring CCTV footage, Ryan was found drunk in a Mira Road lodge near the station on Monday. The police said that the child died on May 28 after she was given rat poison with her food and soft drinks. They were in the room with the body of their daughter for over 48 hours days before she was found.
The couple had entered a suicide pact because of financial issues. Ryan, who worked as a production manager with a leading production house in Mumbai, had quit in April and was under debt. Poonam works as a pre-primary school teacher.
They had also taken a house on rent but were asked to leave due to non-payment of rent. Since then, they have been staying at wayside hotels and inns,” Potdar said.
Before the Mira Road hotel, the couple had stayed in the another hotel at Kashimira and had run up a bill of ₹15,000, but were told to leave due to the non-payment.
On May 27, Ryan sold Poonam and his phones and checked into the Mira road hotel. CCTV footage shows that he also visited a bar. Later, the two of them consumed rat poison to end their lives and also mixed it with the child’s food. Ryan had loose motion and Poonam vomited a lot, but both of them survived. However, the child did not.