3 suicides keep cops on their toes

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 12

Three suicides incidents came to the fore in the city on Saturday. In one of the incidents, a man committed suicide allegedly due to the mental and physical torture extended by the loan recovery staff of a finance company.

Bikramjit Singh (34), a resident of New Ashok Nagar in Salem Tabri, committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance yesterday. The deceased was working as a tailor master at Sandhu Hosiery in Sunder Nagar. He has left behind his wife and two daughters — Priya (9) and Preeti (4).

He has also left a suicide note, in which he mentioned that he was being tortured by the loan recovery agents of a local finance company, due to which he was ending his life.

The kin placed the body outside the Salem Tabri police station and demanded FIR against the finance company and recovery agents. Subash Chandar, deceased’s father, said his son had taken two loans of Rs 50,000 each from the finance company. “Due to some financial issues, my son could not pay regular instalments. Loan recovery men used to visit our house. They used to extend mental and physical torture on my son. They had been publicly defaming him in the locality. They also threatened to kill him,” he said.

On Friday, his son went to the factory at 9 am and when he returned home at 10.30 am, he told his wife that he has consumed poison and would die soon. He handed over a suicide note to the family holding recovery men responsible for his death. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital, where he succumbed.

After over two hours of protest, the police registered an abetment of suicide case against the finance company’s recovery agents.

Islamganj resident commits suicide 

A 35-year-old man committed suicide on Saturday by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house in Islamganj area today. The deceased has been identified as Ishwar. He was a cobbler. Investigating Officer ASI Major Singh said the wife of the deceased had gone to meet her brothers and the man was alone at home last night when he took the extreme step. No suicide note was recovered from the spot. Suspecting no foul play, the police have initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPc.

Married 4 months ago, man ends life

Joga Singh, 23, of Ashok Nagar, Salem Tabri, committed suicide due to the alleged mental harassment extended by his wife. Deceased's father Chanan Singh said his son was into garment business. He consumed poison near the railway track on Saturday and succumbed. He got married to Simran Pooja just four months ago. "Since the day he got married, Simran did not allow him to come close to her, due to which he was in tension. Recently, Simran left home, saying she did not want to stay with Joga, which further depressed him. We want an FIR against her because it was due to this mental torture that he ended his life," he said.

Lawyer’s cremation deferred as kin suspect murder

High drama took place at Gau Ghat crematorium on Saturday, where lawyer Vishal Kumar (32) was to be cremated. The lawyer had allegedly committed suicide at his office on Tibba Road on Friday night as his body was found hanging. He has left behind his wife and a 9-year-old son. When the body was being taken to the cremation ground from the Civil Hospital, the family members, after noticing bruises on his body, refused to cremate him saying Vishal did not commit suicide. It seems someone killed him and hung his body from the ceiling fan to give an impression of suicide. The police later agreed to the demand of the kin and assured that a post mortem and medical examination would be conducted again and further action would be taken as per the fresh report.