BENGALURU: A 61-year-old Class 1 contractor allegedly committed suicide at the Rajkumar Indoor Stadium in Mahalakshmi Layout on Thursday. Police suspect that the deceased, V Krishnam Raju, was upset over pending bills amounting to nearly Rs 5 crore. He was a resident of Kodandaramapura.
A senior police officer said Raju’s body was discovered early morning, hanging in a room on the first floor of the stadium. “No suicide note was found, but family members claimed that Raju was depressed since he had outstanding loans and was awaiting payment of pending bills from BBMP. However, the exact reason is yet to be ascertained,” police said.
K T Manjunath, president of BBMP Karyanirata Guttigedarara Sangha, said Raju had executed many projects for the civic body for several years, in Rajajinagar, Malleswaram and Govindarajanagar. He alleged that many contractors are under financial distress as the BBMP has not cleared their dues.
“Last October, we had threatened to stop all civic works across the city. Then, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad had assured us that bills would be cleared in a phased manner,” he said. Commissioner Prasad was not available for comment. Mahalakshmi Layout police took up a case of unnatural death.