CHENNAI: A senior railway official plunged to his death from the fifth floor of his housing quarters at Nungambakkam on Wednesday. Police recovered a suicide note from the scene.
“Due to ill-health, I am committing suicide. Nobody is responsible for my death,” the note written in English by 52-year-old Abdul Nazir, Chief Personnel Officer (Administration), Southern Railway, read.
A native of Hyderabad, he was one of the heads of department at the Southern Railway headquarters here and stayed at the railway officers’ quarters on Sterling Road in Nungambakkam.
Around 8.50 am, Nazir called his office staff and asked them to send a car to pick him up at 10 am, sources said. Some 40 minutes later, his peon Srikanth heard a loud thud and, on looking down from the fifth floor balcony, saw the officer lying sprawled on the ground. Informing the railway officials, he called an ‘108’ ambulance and rushed him to the Kilpauk medical college hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”.
A police team, led by Inspector Govindaraj, recovered a suicide note from the house. The inspector told Express that Abdul Nazir had been staying alone in the house. His wife Asra was in Hyderabad and the couple’s son and daughter were living abroad. The post-mortem report showed that Nazir had sustained multiple internal injuries on the chest and right thigh and abrasions on his hands and back in the fall. The report also showed that he had not consumed anything since morning.
The railway official’s wife, who arrived here to claim the body, told the police that her husband was a diabetes patient. Besides, he had also been suffering from depression for sometime. Her husband’s body was handed over to her and she left for Hyderabad by Charminar Express, sources said.
Railway sources said the officer’s request for a transfer to South-Central Railway was pending before the Railway Board.
Chief public relations officer, Southern Railway, V J Accamma declined to comment on the tragedy.