Ghaziabad: IAS officer informed nine before committing suicide

Pandey, who allegedly committed suicide on the railway tracks in Ghaziabad on Thursday night, had left behind a detailed suicide note and a pre-recorded video. The video was found to be recorded through the front camera of his phone on August 9 at circuit house in Buxar, Bihar.

It has been revealed that 29-year-old Mukesh Pandey, Bihar cadre IAS, had allegedly planned to commit suicide in Bihar, as indicated by a video found on his phone, according to an official source from Ghaziabad.

The body was found on railway tracks near Ghaziabad junction. (Sakib Ali/HT File Photo)

Pandey, who allegedly committed suicide on the railway tracks in Ghaziabad on Thursday night, had left behind a detailed suicide note and a pre-recorded video. The video was found to be recorded through the front camera of his phone on August 9 at circuit house in Buxar, Bihar.

Pandey had assumed the office of the district magistrate of Buxar.

“The video is dated August 9. Thereafter, he sought leaves on the pretext of visiting his ailing maternal uncle and left the circuit house early in the morning before boarding a flight to Delhi. There, he checked in to the hotel around 11.30am and wrote the note in a diary,” the officer said.

“I have made this plan that I will tell a lie and go to Delhi to commit suicide. Whoever finds this video, please inform my parents, wife, in-laws and relatives...” Pandey is reported to have said in the video.

After leaving his hotel room, Pandey hired a cab run by an aggregator and reached Janakpuri, during which he had sent several messages to his wife, in-laws and his elder brother who is an IFS officer posted in Moscow.

“So far, we have come to know that he sent messages about his suicide to nine people. The detailed suicide note that he left behind in the hotel had praise for his family, in-laws and wife, and he described his elder brother as his ‘role model.’ The contents of the suicide note found in his pocket, the detailed suicide note and the video, more or less, convey the same message,” the officer said.

The officer said that after Pandey had failed to commit suicide in Delhi, he boarded a metro train from Janakpuri to Anand Vihar, from where he boarded a train to the Ghaziabad junction. His head and torso were found separated on the railway tracks nearly a kilometre from the Ghaziabad junction at Kotgaon railway crossing around 8.40pm by a government railway police (GRP) patrol team.

“I am Mukesh Pandey IAS 2012 batch Bihar cadre presently posted as DM Buxar... I am committing suicide of my own volition and after my death, please inform my relatives about my suicide,” the suicide note recovered by GRP from the body stated.

The post-mortem examination was conducted in Ghaziabad on August 11 and the body was flown to Guwahati, to Pandey’s parents.

“The body was handed over to his family. From the suicide notes and the video, it is clear that he committed suicide. However, we are yet to receive any formal complaint into the incident,” said Randhir Singh, circle officer, GRP, Ghaziabad.