The couple — Kushal and Preeti Chowdhury — was today produced in the Sreerampore Subdivisional court, which remanded them to two days’ police custody.

On Sunday morning, the couple allegedly poisoned their four children — Vidya (20), Prerana (18), Govindo (13) and Priya (11). The first two studied at a school in Burrabazar while the other two studied at a local school.

Kushal today told the court he had taken the extreme step because of the penury which the family

was suffering through.

After poisoning their children, the two wanted to commit suicide. Kushal said he and his wife tried to

jump into Hooghly river but there were people around and so they decided to wait till the night. Meanwhile, they were arrested from

a relative’s house at Posta

in Burrabazar area on

Sunday night.

Arjun Shaw, the relative whose house they fled to, is said to have called the police after he came to know about what the couple had done.

The family was going through hard times after Kushal lost his job in

January this year, when

he was sacked from a saree shop at Park Street. The relatives and neighbours claimed the family was finding it difficult to meet their daily expenses.

Early on Sunday morning, Kushal rang up a relative, Madan Lal Lohia, asking him to come over to his place saying an accident