Lucknow, March 13: A couple killed themselves and six of their children at an Uttar Pradesh village out of shame at the budding romance between the eldest daughter and a local boy.

The youngest of the backward-caste couple’s seven children, eight-year-old Rajni who too drank rat poison like the rest of the family, is battling for life in hospital.

“Whatever has happened is good for us,” Jivan Lal, 42, managed to croak to a neighbour who found him writhing in pain this morning at his home in Dateli, Lakhimpur Kheri district, 130 km from here.

The six children ? three girls and three boys ? were already dead. Lal and his wife died later in hospital.

“Since all the members of the family, except a minor girl, are dead, it’s difficult for us to immediately find out what led to the suicide pact,” said Sailendra Tripathi, officer in charge of the Mitauli police station.

“But their neighbours said the family had been shamed by the relationship between one of the daughters and a boy from a rich family in the village.”

Ramkrishan, a neighbour, said the entire village had been talking about the love affair. The boy’s family added to Lal’s humiliation.