Man sets himself on fire, jumps to death

A 32-year-old software engineer, who was allegedly depressed due to 'personal reasons', set himself ablaze before jumping to his death from the sixth-floor of an apartment complex in east Delhi on Wednesday morning, police said.

A 32-year-old software engineer, who was allegedly depressed due to 'personal reasons', set himself ablaze before jumping to his death from the sixth-floor of an apartment complex in east Delhi on Wednesday morning, police said.

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Identified as Mridul Sahni, police said the man was employed with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) before he left his job some six months ago and had been undergoing treatment for depression at Apollo Hospitals.

"A security guard who claimed to have witnessed the incident said the deceased collapsed in a crumpled heap below his A-block residence at Ashiana Apartments around 4:30am. His father VK Sahni, 80, was rescued from the room next to the one where Mridul had set himself on fire," said a senior police officer.

Police said neighbours had more or less been able to extinguish the flames in the house and called the fire brigade before calling the Police Control Room.

While his father was rushed to the adjacent Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and admitted for the treatment for minor burns, Mridul's body was taken for post-mortem examination.

"He scribbled something of a suicide note on a wall in his room, some of which seems to be in German which he had learnt when he was posted for some time in that country, blaming his father for not only his but also the death of his elder brother," an officer said.

Police said Mridul, whose mother had passed away in the year 2000 and followed by his elder brother's death two years later, was the sole family member taking care of his father who is suffering from an undisclosed illness.

Sources said today was the death anniversary of Mridul’s late mother.

The last time Mridul, whom neighbours described as a "decent boy", had interacted with anyone was around 00:30am on Wednesday when one of the guards employed at the residential complex, at the behest of a complaining neighbour, had asked him to lower the volume of his blaring music system.

Sources claimed one Gagan had also been mentioned on the improvised suicide note that the deceased left behind.