KOLAR: Another Karnataka police officer shot himself dead with his service revolver at the Malur police station in Kolar district early this morning.
Raghavendra (40) was a circle inspector with the Malur police station. He was found by a constable sitting his chamber at the police station with a bullet wound to the temple. Senior police officers said a suicide note, written in English, was found by his side, stating that “no one was responsible” for the death.
Although exactly when inspector Raghavendra shot himself was not yet ascertained, the death came to light at around 6 am this morning when a police constable went to his chamber to check on him after he did not answer calls on his phone.
According to the Kolar superintendent of police Divya V Gopinath, Raghavendra went to his police station last night at around 10 pm with directions to conduct a raid. Accordingly, he took some personnel for the raid and returned some time later.
SP Gopinath said the officer remained standing at the police station for nearly 45 minutes after returning from the raid. Then, he told the night duty staff that he was going to his chamber to rest.
As his mobile phone was ringing repeatedly, a constable went to alert the officer in his chamber and found him dead in a sitting position, she said.
Inspector-general of police Seemant Kumar Singh said this looked like a suicide. "Several papers
found at his office, including his death note, have been seized. A detailed investigation has been ordered under the Kolar deputy superintendent of police," he said.
A complaint has been filed by Raghavendra’s elder brother Manjunath at the Malur police station.
The Karnataka Police have been rocked by two earlier suicides by senior officers this year, both controversial.
July 7: M K Ganapathy (56)
Dressed in his full uniform, medals and all, the deputy superintendent of police of Mangaluru , M K Ganapathy shot himself with his service revolver in a lodge in Kodagu district. Hours earlier, he had given an interview to a TV channel, accusing the then home minister, K J George, and two seniors — A M Prasad, additional director general of police (intelligence department) and inspector-general Pronab Mohanty— of harassing him. George quit his job, but was given a clean chit by the state’s Crime Investigation Department. And he’s back in the ministry.
July 5: Kallappa Handibag
Just two days before the Ganapathy suicide, Chikmagalur deputy police superintendent committed suicide in his father-in-law’s house after his named surfaced in a probe into the kidnap of a businessman. Handibag’s colleagues said he had been harassed by his higher-ups.