BAREILLY: A 30-year-old man and his pet dog were found dead inside a locked house in Izzatnagar area of Bareilly, police said on Tuesday. Prima facie, the man is suspected to have poisoned his pet and then died by suicide by consuming a toxic substance, SP (city) Manush Pareek said.Relatives said Nikhil Arora lived alone in a rented accommodation in Kailashpuram locality. He lost his private job during the Covid pandemic, while his father died in 2015 and his mother in 2021 due to cancer. His sisters live in Lucknow. The family had also sold their house due to financial distress. “He had borrowed money from a few people and was under pressure to repay,” said his cousin Dheeraj Kumar.The matter came to light when Dheeraj approached police on Monday evening after he was unable to contact him. Police said Arora would regularly visit his cousin for breakfast, but on the day of the incident, his phone was unreachable. When Dheeraj went to check on him, he found the house locked from the inside and alerted police.A police team arrived and broke open the door and found Arora lying dead in the room, with his dead pet labrador, Dollar, beside him.Police recovered two sealed packets of buttermilk, one empty packet and an empty container of toxic pesticide. “Initial investigation suggests that he may have mixed the poison in buttermilk, given it to his dog and then consumed the same,” the SP said.A relative said Arora was also dealing with personal distress. “He was in a relationship and wanted to get married, but due to his financial condition, the woman could not inform her family. As her marriage was arranged elsewhere, it affected him deeply,” the relative said.Police said no complaint has been received so far and further investigation is underway. The body was handed over to the family after postmortem.(With inputs from Asif Ansari in Bareilly)
