CHENNAI: Reeta Lankalingam, the 45-year-old joint managing director of Lanson Toyota, was found dead at her residence in the city on Thursday morning.
Lanson Group is a popular Toyota dealership in Tamil Nadu with showrooms and service centres across the state. Reeta's husband Lankalingam Murugesu is the chairman of the company.
According to police, Reeta stayed at a luxury hotel in the city on Wednesday night and returned to her home on Kothari Road in Nungambakkam in the wee hours of Thursday.
"There are three maids in the house. As Reeta did not come out for breakfast on Thursday morning and did not respond to the knocks on her bedroom door, the maids informed supervisor Yesupatham," said Teynampet assistant commissioner V Muthuvel Pandi.
Yesupatham broke the bedroom door and found Reeta hanging from the ceiling. The police were informed and the body was sent to the GH for postmortem. Police say there was no suicide note in the room.
However, a preliminary probe suggests there was ongoing tension in the company about the slowdown in the automobile sector. The couple also allegedly had 'arguments' over the sale of company shares.
Police suspect these could have been a reason for the suicide.
Reeta's husband was out of town on Wednesday. He returned on Thursday, hearing the news of his wife's death. They have a daughter and a son who live elsewhere.
The Lanson Group is a $100 million business conglomerate with origins in Thoothukudi and business interests in food manufacturing, exports and biotechnology.
If in distress or having suicidal thoughts, call 104 for health department’s helpline that offers counselling or 044- 24640050 for Sneha suicide helpline.