A middle-aged man, said to be suffering from acute depression, allegedly throttled to death his mother, wife and three daughters, before making a failed suicide bid here on Friday, police said.
Fifty-year-old Bharat Kesri - a watchmaker by profession - strangled his 80-year-old mother, wife Asha Devi (45) and daughters Shivani Kumari (16), Simran Kumari (14) and Sonam Kumari (10), in a fit of temper early in the morning in Kharagpur police station area of the district.
Kesri thereafter climbed atop the roof of his house and jumped off the building but fell on a neighbour who was passing by, Kharagpur SHO Mintu Babu said.
The neighbour has been admitted to a hospital with injuries, while Kesri, who was unscathed, has been arrested.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that he had been suffering from depression for some time, the SHO said.
The bodies of the deceased have been sent for post mortem, he added.