R. Vishnupriya, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tiruchengode in Namakkal district, and Investigating Officer in the sensational murder case of Dalit engineering graduate V. Gokulraj, was found hanging at her quarters in Tiruchengode here on Friday evening.
The body was first noticed by her driver around 5.10 p.m. who informed his senior officials. Superintendent of Police S.R. Senthil Kumar rushed to the spot.
Sources said that Ms. Vishnupriya had returned from two days leave on Friday and was attending to a case of road blockade in Tiruchengode over the alleged assault on a lecturer this morning.
The blockade is said to have paralysed traffic in Tiruchengode town.
After resolving the issue, the officer returned home only around 4.30 p.m. after informing her office that she would back in one hour.
Police sources confirmed recovery of an eight-page suicide note left behind by her.
Sources privy to the suicide note told The Hindu that it did not convey anything about the reason for taking the extreme step. Her parents who are rushing from Cuddalore could throw some light on whether the officer had any personal or family-related problems, the sources added.
She is said mentioned in the note that she was not able to meet the requirements of the job, but made it clear that there was no pressure from higher officials.
The officer has reportedly appealed to the police to consider handing over the body to the parents without performing an autopsy. She had also appealed not to link her “suicide” with investigations in the Gokulraj murder case and not to politicise it.
The death of a Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Group 1 officer under suspicious circumstances comes as a shocker, especially when she was investigating a most sensational case in which the prime accused was yet to be arrested.
Ms. Vishnupriya, 27-year-old and unmarried, was the investigating officer in the murder case of V. Gokulraj, whose body was found with his head severed on the railway track near Pallipalayam on June 24. She hailed from a family in which other members also served in the police.
While more than a dozen accused had been arrested and remanded, the main accused, Yuvaraj, president of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, is eluding the police net.
Accused challenges police
Meanwhile, Yuvaraj has released an audio file of his speech on social networking platforms challenging the police to arrest him. He has accused the police of falsely implicating him in the case to appease Dalit activists.
A senior police official said that Ms. Vishnupriya was rated as a sincere and efficient officer. She was part of a bigger team led by an Additional Superintendent of Police that was probing the Gokulraj murder and was not directly or solely responsible for the delay in the arrest of the prime accused. Hence, “it could not be a reason for the officer resorting to the extreme step.”
