Unable to bear alleged harassment by private electrical contractors, an Assistant Engineer (Technical wing) with BESCOM ended her life by hanging at her residence in Siddapura near Lalbagh on Thursday. Police have arrested a contractor in this connection.
The deceased, Savitha, 29, was working in Chikkaballapur sub-division, which was her first posting. She had completed BE at BMS College of Engineering and was appointed as Assistant Engineer in 2010.
She was unmarried and was living with her mother Nagamma and two brothers. She used to commute to Chikkaballapur daily.
Police said Savitha, who was depressed over some contractors threatening her to sanction some power connections, had not gone to work from three days.
On Thursday afternoon, she was at home and her mother was asleep. Nagamma woke up in the evening and knocked Savitha’s room door but did not get response. Nagamma informed her sons about this. Around 8 pm, they broke open the door and found Savitha hanging from the ceiling.
“Savitha has left behind a suicide note stating that private electrical contractor Nagaraj was forcing her to sanction a power connection. On February 4, he along with another contractor had gone to her office and had threatened her of dire consequences if she did not sign the file concerned. Besides, they had also allegedly insulted her in front of her sub-ordinates. She has said that those two contractors were responsible for her death,” the police said.
Following the incident, the police arrested Nagaraj, 52, a resident of Chowdeshwarinagar in Laggere, on charges of abetment for suicide. “Preliminary investigations revealed that Nagaraj’s relative Nagamma had built a house in Katriguppe in Chikkaballapur and she had asked Nagaraj to help her in getting power connection as the day of house-warming ceremony was nearing.
Nagaraj had asked Savitha to speed up the process but Savitha had told him that she would go by rules and would first clear off the files which came first. Thus, Nagaraj was pressurising her and allegedly threatened her,” the police added.
Savitha’s elder brother Girish said, “Savitha had informed us that some contractors were harassing her. She was scared to work there and had stopped going for work. She had requested her senior officers for a transfer and they had asked her to collect her transfer order on Monday. Before that she has taken this hasty decision.”