A 53-year-old man has committed suicide in order to escape an arrest after allegedly defiling his 13-year-old stepdaughter in Mzimba.

Jasten Chikapa Nkhoma from T/A Mzikubola committed suicide after he was caught red handed defiling his stepdaughter in his house during the night of Sunday.

Mzimba Police Spokesperson Gift Nyirongo confirmed the development in an interview with a local radio station saying soon after Nkhoma was caught he ran away to a nearby bush and was found hanging the following day.

Postmortem conducted at Mzimba District Hospital indicate that the death was due to strangulation.

Mzimba district continue to grapple with cases of suicide and sudden deaths despite mass sensitization campaigns by police to combat these cases.

According to the 2013 police report, a total of 34 suicide cases and 31 sudden death cases were registered in the district,

The report mentions family problems as a leading cause for suicide cases, while excessive beer drinking is leading to sudden deaths.