Paranoia behind brother-sister suicide bid!

Siblings were suffering from rare medical disorder, say psychiatrist

From a Correspondent

JORHAT, June 1: The sensatiol case of an allegedly incestuous brother-sister couple setting their parents afire in Duliagaon village at Malow in Jorhat and subsequently attempting suicide, has filly taken its toll on the father Deben Dutta (60) who succumbed to burn injuries on Sunday.

On the other hand, doctors in Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) presently treating the brother-sister duo, have stated that the siblings are suffering from a rare medical disorder called ‘Shared Delusion’.

Talking to The Sentinel, Dr Pallav Bhattacharjee, psychiatrist at JMCH, said, “People must stop being judgmental whenever an incident of such ture is reported. I believe the entire case of Deben Dutta’s family has been misinterpreted as an alleged sexual relationship between the brother and sister. Upon close study and investigation, it is now 100 per cent clear that not only the two but the entire family was in the grip of paranoia.  The brother Pullock Dutta first fell victim to this paranoia and later made the remaining three, especially his sister Sumi Dutta, victims of the delusion as well.”

According to Dr Bhattacharjee, victims under the grip of this rare medical illness become highly suspicious of the surrounding environment and turn possessive about each other. “They feel all people are their enemies. So once Pullock became a victim, he convinced the others into believing such ideas. Pullock then started making up stories like the sister to be pregnt, in a bid to rescue her from an elusive world of enemies determined to harm the family at any cost.”

“Even now when I am examining them, they feel and in fact they told us that we doctors, nurses and the entire medical fraternity are conspiring with someone in return for money to harm them, because despite coming from an agricultural background both of them had excelled in life and all others are jealous of them,” Dr Bhattacharjee said.

Pullock has also spoken about how he and his father once brought back Sumi from his uncle’s house in Golaghat at midnight on a scooter, after Sumi expressed apprehension about her life. The three of them took different routes via Titabor, Mariani and through tea gardens avoiding the tiol highway, which was otherwise an easy route directly connecting Jorhat with Golaghat.

“Basically they are a disturbed family… This type of delusion arises only between close relations and within the family. Chronic stress, lesser social contact and extreme dependency on one another are some of the primary causes behind this type of mental illness. But it is curable. It can be medically treated only if someone identifies any such family suffering from such paranoia and brings them to a doctor. Perhaps early medical intervention can save them from taking such extreme steps like murder or suicide. There is a need for social awareness and the presence of NGOs who can regularly counsel people suffering such disorders,” said Dr Bhattacharjee.

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