BENGALURU: A 33-year-old Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) committed suicide at a friend’s house in Annapoorneshwari Nagar police station limits on Wednesday night. The police have detained four of her friends in this connection.Lakshmi V, a Karnataka State Police Service (KSPS) officer of the 2014 batch, was appointed DySP in 2017. She was married to Naveen and was living in Konanakunte.
Police said Lakshmi had gone to attend a party at her friend Manohar alias Manu’s residence located in Vinayaka Layout on Wednesday evening. “She had reached there around 7 pm and four of her friends had gathered there. According to her friends, around 10 pm, she went to a room and locked herself up. As she did not come out for some time, they broke open the door only to find her hanging from the window grill. They immediately brought her down and rushed her to a private hospital, where she was declared brought dead,” the police said.
“It is said that there were family issues and Manu, who is a BBMP contractor, took up the matter with her during the party. After that, she went into the room and hanged herself. She may also have been upset that the couple did not have children even eight years after marriage. On the professional front, she had shared with her close friends that she was unhappy over not getting an executive posting. All these angles are being probed to establish the reason that drove her to end her life,” an official said.
No reason for daughter to take step: DySP’s dad
However, Lakshmi’s father Venkatesh, a retired KAS officer, said everything was fine with his daughter and that there was no reason for her to take the extreme step. Speaking to reporters at the mortuary where the autopsy was conducted on Thursday, Venkatesh said, “I had not spoken to her in the last 15 days. But she had not shared about anything that could driven a person to depression or suicide. I suspect foul play in her death and I have filed a complaint against her friends.”
He, however, added that there were marital disputes. Lakshmi and Naveen, who had fallen in love while studying engineering in a private college in Banashankari, had got married about eight years ago. Naveen works with a private company in Hyderabad and was living there.
Based on Venkatesh’s complaint, the Annapoorneshwari Nagar police have registered a case of suspicious death. “Manu, Rahul, Prajwal, and one more person, who were present in the house when the incident occurred, have been detained and are being questioned,” an official said.Hailing from Malur taluk in Kolar district, Lakshmi had cleared the KPSC exams in 2014 and was appointed as DySP in 2017 with her posting at the CID. Sources in the CID said that Lakshmi was trying for an executive posting, but it had not materialised.
(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)