HYDERABAD, July 16: Nine persons belonging to two different families, both plagued by financial problems, ended their lives in suicide pacts in the city on Tuesday night. In the first instance, a small-time businessman who was being hounded by debtors administered pesticide to his four children, aged between 11 and 2, and later consumed it himself. The 45-year-old man's wife is the sole survivor in the family. In the other incident, a 53-year-old man, his wife and their two sons, both in their twenties, hanged themselves after signing a joint suicide note. The family had reportedly accumulated bad debts after investing around Rs 12 lakh in a teak plantation scheme.

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