Police at N’gabu in Chikwawa district are keeping in custody three people for attempting to terminate their own lives.
According to Chikwawa Police publicist Foster Benjamin, the three were arrested on separate occasions on Thursday and Friday in the area of Senior Chief N’gabu in the district.
He identified the three as Emmanuel Ben aged 29, Hanna Mahomed, 20, and Mary Khambadza, 18.
Benjamin said the suspects are said to have taken rat poison following disputes in their respective families.
According to Benjamin, Beni is alleged to have quarreled with his wife after she squandered money meant for family necessities whereas Mahomed and Khambadza decided to kill themselves in protest to their husbands’ alleged infidelity.
The suspects were admitted to N’gabu Rural Hospital where medical findings indicated that the three had consumed poison a development which forced police to act on the tip and apprehend the three on their hospital beds.
The three will soon appear before court to answer charges of attempted suicide, an offence contrary to Section 229 of the Penal code and which attracts maximum sentence of 7 years in prison.
Beni hails from Mphamba, while Mahomed and Khambadza come from Thonje and Nkhakamira villages respectively, both under Senior Chief N’gabu in Chikwawa district.
The arrest of the three comes two days after a 20-year-old man, Rabson Joe, poisoned himself to death at Nkumaniza in the same area.
It is alleged that Joe had been at loggerheads with his wife whom he suspected of flirting around with other men.
Out of anger, it is reported, he took termic and was pronounced dead at N’gabu Rural Hospital.
Police in the district have since called on people not to commit suicide but rather seek help and advice from either the police’s victim support units or marriage counselors and traditional leaders.
