A 42-year-old man, employed with the UT Estate Office, ended his life by jumping off the building of GMSH, Sector 16, on Tuesday morning.
Police said no suicide note was found from the spot and they are also not suspecting any foul play.
A senior police officer said the deceased, who worked as a junior assistant in the Estate Office’s colony branch in Sector 17, was suffering from depression and also getting treatment from the psychiatry department of PGIMER.
“He had visited the hospital with his wife recently. On Tuesday, he left home around 3 am and jumped off the hospital building a few hours later,” a police officer said.
Sector-17 police have initiated inquest proceedings and kept the body in the mortuary of the hospital. The autopsy will be conducted on Wednesday.
As the news of his demise reached his office colleagues, they staged a sit-in outside the deputy commissioner’s (DC) office in Sector 17, halting public dealings.
The staff alleged that their colleague ended his life due to work overload and harassment from senior officials.
A staff member shared that in 2010, there were 18 people working in the colony branch and now the number was down to only four, causing extra burden on them.
{{/usCountry}}A staff member shared that in 2010, there were 18 people working in the colony branch and now the number was down to only four, causing extra burden on them.
{{/usCountry}}After the staff refused to deal with public, senior estate officials organised their meeting with DC Vinay Pratap Singh, who assured them of speedy action pertaining to staff crunch.
“His wife met senior officials in his office on Monday and informed them that the deceased didn’t come out of his room for three days during the weekend holidays and was in sheer depression due to workload. There is an acute shortage of staff and a lot of vacancies are there for long now, putting extra burden on the current staff. The bosses despite knowing about the staff crunch misbehave with the staff in case of delay in work,” said a protesting employee.
Meanwhile, after the public was not allowed inside the Estate Office by the staff, a few heated arguments erupted. After the visitors threatened to stage a sit-in against the staff and DC for not attending to the public, visitors were allowed in, but the staff refused to entertain them, citing the strike.
Jasdeep Singh, an NRI said, “I came to collect a legal aid certificate and had to meet the SDM for it. But the staff is not allowing us to meet anyone. This is sheer harassment.”
DC Vinay Partap Singh said it was an unfortunate incident. “To understand the employees’ personal and professional issues, it has been decided to dedicate 2 pm to 3 pm every Wednesday to listen to them in the presence of assistant estate officer (AEO).”
The staff of the Estate Office has also decided to bear all expenses of the last rites of their colleague.