VELLORE: Caught in a debt trap, a government employee on the verge of retirement allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree on his office premises in Katpadi on Friday. Police suspected that he killed himself assuming his son would get a government job on compassionate grounds.
Mahalingam (58), employed as Office Assistant at the Katpadi Block Development Office, was barely a week away from retirement. He is survived by wife, two daughters and a son.
A three-page suicide note, which police suspect he could have written over a period of time, was recovered from his person. Mahalingam’s note indicated he was unable to repay around `30 lakh in loans he had accumulated over a period of time. He had borrowed money from various sources and was upset about passing the burden to his son, who did not have a stable job. That led the police to suspect he could be banking on the pension benefits going to his family and his son possibly getting a government job on compassionate grounds.
Sources said moments after Mahalingam entered the office on Friday morning and signed the attendance register, he went out and hanged himself from the tree. It looked like he had come prepared with a rope and was determined to end his life, they added.
Superintendent of Police P Pakalavan said the suicide note suggested Mahalingam took the extreme step mainly due to personal reasons, as he could not escape the debt trap.
The body was sent to the Government Vellore Medical College for postmortem and case registered by the Katpadi police.