Thrikkakara police probing the deaths of 43-year-old IRS officer Manish Vijay, his sister Shalini Vijay, 49 and mother Shakunthala Agarwal have ruled out murder-suicide in the case.

Autopsy showed that Shakunthala died by hanging and the body was left hanging for around four hours before it was untied and put on the bed by the siblings. There was a ligature mark on her neck. The police said that she wasn't smothered or strangulated, and there were no other injuries on her body. The ligature mark proved she died by hanging, police said.

Their bodies were found in their residence at staff quarters in Kakkanadu, Kochi, on Thursday. While Maneesh and Shalini were found hanging, Shakunthala's body was found lying on the bed. This raised a suspicion that Shakunthala may have been murdered, and then the siblings committed suicide.

"Going by autopsy findings, it is clear that Shakunthala died by hanging. Her body was brought down, draped with cloth and scattered with flowers as a way of honouring the mortal remains," a senior police official said. The police requested a special forensic team to do the autopsy to rule out all suspicions and corroborate the findings.

The bodies will be cremated in Kochi. Meanwhile, the police need to find out what drove them to suicide. An ongoing case in an examination fraud in Ranchi was reported as one reason which led to the suicide of Shalini, however police are yet to confirm this.

Meanwhile police learnt from one of the relatives in Ranchi that Shalini was reportedly embroiled in a food bill scam while being in government service. "All these reports and information are subject to verification. We have no concrete findings to establish any of these reports," a police official said.

The police have understood that when Manish Vijay cleared the civil service exam in 2016, Shalini Vijay left her job without serving notice and was staying with Manish since then.

"This is the preliminary information we have gathered. Whether it is the examination scam or corruption case which led to the suicide needs to be ascertained. If necessary, we will get in touch with the police in Jharkhand to follow up on information we received regarding the corruption case," the official said.

Jharkhand High Court records show that Shalini Vijay, resident of Flat No.303, Rajorshi Apartment, Radium Road, Ranchi, had filed a petition and when the case came up before the court on September 10, 2024, her counsel Indrajit Sinha submitted that in spite of his best efforts, he could not get instruction from his client. The records, however, do not show information on the contents of the petition.