Krishnagar, April 22: Unable to see her youngest son slog to earn money to meet her medical expenses, a 75-year-old woman killed herself last evening.

Nalini Mondal’s two elder sons, labourers like the younger one, had left home after marriage and settled elsewhere in Nadia’s Karimpur, about 190 km from Calcutta.

“Daughter-in-law Purnima saw her gasping for breath in her room. Next to her was a packet of poison, which her son Sukhen bought three days ago because rats had become a menace in the house,” a police officer said.

The hospital where Sukhen, 35, was planning to shift his mother for a check-up pronounced her dead.

“Questioning local people and relatives, we came to know that the widow was suffering from old-age related diseases. She also realised that her youngest son, who did his best for her, was a poor man. She did not want to become a burden on him,” said Kuntal Chatterjee, the officer in charge of Karimpur.

A farm labourer, Sukhen earns about Rs 30 a day.