ATS cop shoots himself dead in Thane

A state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) officer shot himself dead on Saturday while having lunch with his family in a Thane restaurant.

A state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) officer shot himself dead on Saturday while having lunch with his family in a Thane restaurant.

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Sanjay Banerjee, 43, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) with the ATS, dressed informally in T-shirt and jeans, was seated on the first floor of Goa Portuguesa restaurant at Ghodbundar Road with his wife Sushmita, sons Arjun, 14, and Ashutosh, 6, when the incident occurred at around 3.30pm. The waiters were in the kitchen and there were no customers in the restaurant at the time.

Mid-way through the lunch, Banerjee, a 1995-batch MPSC officer, allegedly had an argument with his wife, following which he shot a round to his right temple with his service revolver. Even though Banerjee was off-duty, the police suspect he might have planned the suicide since he had taken the weapon with him.

The waiters rushed out after hearing the gunshot and found Banerjee collapsed on the floor. Informed, the police took Bane-rjee to Thane Civil Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. The police were pinning their hopes on the CCTV camera at the restaurant, but it was not working.

A person close to the Banerjee family said the officer committed suicide due to work pressure. The ATS officer had not been paid a salary for the last eight months as the government had yet to sanction the post he had been transferred to. "We are probing if there was any argument between the couple. We are also looking at all other angles," said KP Raghuvanshi, police commissioner, Thane City.