Family pressure led to Sikh woman's suicide

London -- Depression and constant family pressure led a British Sikh woman to commit suicide by jumping in front of a speeding train along with her two children, said investigative authorities at a London court.

Navjeet Sidhu, 27, suffered from depression because her first child was not a boy, reported the Daily Telegraph.

The court Tuesday heard that Sidhu jumped with her daughter Simran, 5, and son Aman Raj, 2, in front of a Heathrow express train at Southall, west London, in August 2005.

"In a Sikh family, there are high expectations to look after the home and the children. She felt she wasn't a good mother, even though social services found the children were well cared for. It seems the family was extremely happy," detective Alan Bardsley told the court.

In a statement, Sidhu's husband told the court that his wife was in tears when she called him just before jumping to her death.

"She was crying and said, 'I'm sorry for everything. Say sorry to everyone. I have always loved you. I am going.' I asked her, 'Are the children with you', and she said, 'Yes'. Then the phone went dead.

"She was crying but it was nothing new for her to be crying on the phone. She was very frightened of everything, even of crossing the road."

The couple met in India in 1995 and set up home in Southall in 1997.

Sidhu, who was raised in Britain, was unhappy with her arranged marriage because of the high expectations her family had of her, according to the report.

According to Sidhu's close friends, her relations with her husband were not cordial.

Sidhu was first treated for depression in 2002 and then again in 2004. She even underwent counselling and was advised to seek marriage guidance.

In a tragic twist, Sidhu's mother Satwant Kaur Sodhi, unable to bear the grief, committed suicide early this year at the same spot where Sidhu had killed herself.