BHUBANESWAR: Chairman-cum-promoter of Padhee’s Tutorial Pvt Ltd, a leading private coaching institute in the City, Janaki Ballav Padhee allegedly committed suicide here on Thursday.
The 51-year-old left behind an eight-page suicide note in which he reportedly specified a list of outstanding loans which compelled him to take to the extreme step, police sources said.
His body was found hanging from the ceiling in a room of his residence at Bramheswar Patna within Badagada police limits.
Padhee was observing Navaratri festival and used to stay alone in a separate room. On Thursday morning when Padhee did not show up for tea, family members went to his room and found the door locked.
“At around 7.15 am, I forced the door open and found his body hanging from the ceiling fan,” a relative of Padhee said.
The matter was reported to police who rushed to the spot and seized the body. Badagada police registered a case of unnatural death and sent the body for autopsy to Capital Hospital.
Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said so far, there is no evidence of Padhee being under pressure from any individual. Police are examining the suicide note and digging deep into Padhee’s finances, he added.
Though the exact reason behind Padhee’s death is yet to be ascertained, his family said he was under duress due to a number of bank and hand loans amounting to crores of rupees.
Police sources said his educational institutions were not making profit and even business of Padhee’s Tutorial had slumped due to fall in number of students opting for engineering courses.
Padhee, one of the pioneers in engineering and medical coaching in the State, had started Padhee’s Tutorial in late nineties. He was a faculty of Physics at Orissa Engineering College prior to setting up his own institute.
In the course of time, Padhee’s Tutorial became a sought-after name among engineering and MBBS aspirants in the State. Later, he went on to set up Kalinga Bharati Residential College (KBRC) and Kushagra Institute of Management Sciences at Pirabazar in Cuttack.
Four years back, the Crime Branch had investigated KBRC in connection with Plus Two result controversy.
Padhee, a native of Bolagarh in Nayagarh district. His elder daughter works with an MNC in Pune and the younger is a student of MTech at a private university in the Capital City.