8 years after IPS officer died by suicide, Chhattisgarh cops to probe death

An earlier probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had ruled out any foul play in the death of the IPS officer.

The Chhattisgarh government has constituted a panel headed by a director general of police rank officer to probe the suicide of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and then Bilaspur district’s Superintendent of Police (SP) in 2012, officials said on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma had shot himself with his service revolver in the police officers’ mess in Bilaspur on March 12, 2012. (Representative Photo/Getty Images)

According to an order issued by the government, the five-member committee will be headed by Director General of Police (Jail) Sanjay Pillai and other officials.

They will probe the death of 2002-batch Chhattisgarh cadre IPS officer, Rahul Sharma (37) who shot himself with his service revolver in the police officers’ mess in Bilaspur on March 12, 2012.

The BJP government in the state at that time had recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which had ruled out any foul play in the death of Sharma after investigation and the agency had filed its closure report in 2013, a senior official said.

After the Congress came in power in 2018, some leaders had been demanding probe into Sharma’s suicide

Senior officials said that the latest probe announced by the government eight years after the incident will carry out an extensive investigation into some points mentioned by the CBI in its report into the incident.