Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Engineer kills self blaming superior for harassment

TRICHY: In a chilling reminder of an agricultural department executive engineer's suicide in Tirunelveli two months ago for which a former minister and an official were arrested, a 36-year-old engineer in Tiruvarur has killed himself, apparently unable to bear harassment from a superior officer at workplace.

R Muthukrishnan, site supervisor with the state's District Rural Development Agency, doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze on Sunday. Before his death on Monday morning, he gave a dying declaration to Tiruvarur magistrate P Kavitha blaming Senthil Kumar, an executive engineer in the department, for his death.

Tiruvarur RDO Muthumeenakshi and DSP J Anbazhagan were also present when the statement was recorded.

Police registered a case under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC against Kumar, who is absconding. Muthukrishnan accused Kumar of giving him lots of work and putting him under undue pressure. DRDA sources said there were differences of opinion between Muthukrishnan and Kumar with regard to selection of beneficiaries under the Tamil Nadu government's flagship solar-powered green house scheme, meant for the poor homeless.

Muthukrishnan, a resident of Ammaiyappan Nagar in Tiruvarur, has been working as a site supervisor in Nannilam union for the past eight months. He was earlier attached to DRDA in Tiruvarur as a junior draftsman. He had apparently sought transfer to Nannilam because of Kumar's harassment. But even after the transfer, the harassment continued, it was alleged.

On Sunday, after dinner, Muthukrishnan left his house for a walk. He doused himself in kerosene and set himself ablaze in the middle of the road. By the time onlookers came to his rescue, he was badly burnt. He was rushed to Tiruvarur government hospital, where he died. As news of his death spread on Monday, government officials attached to DRDA and members of site supervisors' association staged a demonstration in front of the Tiruvarur collectorate.

His family initially refused to accept the body after postmortem. They were pacified by district collector N Mathivanan, who assured a free and fair investigation. Muthukrishnan is survived by wife Thilagavathi and two sons.

On February 20, agriculture department engineer S Muthukumarasamy, 57, killed himself by jumping before a train in Tirunelveli district. It was alleged that he was being harassed by the staff in then agriculture minister S S Krishnamoorthy's office with regard to certain appointments in the department. Krishnamoorthy, who was subsequently dropped from the cabinet, was later arrested along with agriculture department chief engineer M Senthil and charged with abetment to suicide.

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