Wife gone, distraught employee wants no help from company

Manas Chakravarthy looked devastated as he stumbled out of the mortician's chamber on Friday afternoon. He had just been given the final go-ahead for his wife Sushmita's post-mortem at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital. Jatin Anand reports.

Manas Chakravarthy looked devastated as he stumbled out of the mortician's chamber on Friday afternoon. He had just been given the final go-ahead for his wife Sushmita's post-mortem at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital.

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"Please understand my mental condition. I'm waiting for my son to come back to me before I can say anything," he told reporters, who had gathered outside for his comments. "I have nothing to say at the moment - not even to, or about, the airline I work for. Nor do I need any kind of assistance from them," said the Kingfisher Airlines technician.

Last evening, 44-year-old Sushmita Chakravarthy had committed suicide because of the dire financial straits that the non-payment of her husband's wages for months had brought the family. Manas and Sushmita had been married for two decades.

Sushmita, a housewife, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at the couple's DDA flat in southwest Delhi's Manglapuri around 1.30 pm on Thursday afternoon.

"I had been doing something very wrong for the past one year. My husband was spending too much money on me and that's why I'm taking this step. I hope he will forgive me," Sushmita wrote in Bangla, her native tongue, in her suicide note.

Having initiated inquest proceedings immediately after the incident was brought to their notice, police investigation has thus far revealed that months of non-payment of her husband's salary had already eaten into his retirement benefits which were diminishing rapidly with every passing day.

"What added to the strain was the fact that their son, Ajay, who is pursuing B.Tech from an Assam college, was coping with it alone," said an officer.

In fact, the police said, they suspected that Sushmita's extreme step could have been triggered by Ajay's trip back home early last month. "Their son had had to move out of the college hostel and stay on rent with a friend. He was even mulling dropping out of the course till he could try and arrange some money on his own," the officer added.

Sushmita's funeral has been scheduled for Saturday evening, after Ajay arrives from Assam.