HOD booked for abetment after IIT Roorkee employee allegedly dies by suicide
Police said that the deceased was an employee at Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Roorkee and was allegedly being harassed by HOD Durga Toshniwa
Dehradun: Uttarakhand Police have booked a head of the department (HOD) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee after an employee allegedly died by suicide, officials aware of the matter said.
Police said that the deceased was an employee at Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Roorkee and was allegedly being harassed by HOD Durga Toshniwal. He died allegedly after consuming poison.
According to the police, the deceased on Tuesday left the house at around noon, informing his wife that he was going to file a complaint against HOD Durga Toshniwal with senior officials and request his transfer. He, however, did not return home by the evening. When his sister called him in the evening, the deceased informed him that he consumed poison.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against Toshniwal on Wednesday under Section 108 (abetment of suicide) of BNS on the complaint of the deceased’s wife, said police.
According to the police, the complainant told them that HOD Toshniwal used to “trouble and harass” his husband.
“She used to make my husband do the work of a peon, ask for half of his salary, and talk to him in a derogatory manner. She would also insult him,” the FIR said, quoting the complainant.
“...On August 2, my husband returned from office and started crying…He said that his senior (Toshniwal) will ruin his life and will not let him work. My husband remained upset for a few days. On August 6, he left the house at around 12-12:30pm, informing that he was going to file a complaint against Toshniwal. When he did not return home till late evening, my sister-in-law called him at around 9pm. He informed my sister-in-law that he had consumed poison as he was being troubled by Toshniwal”, the FIR further read.
“We have registered the FIR against HOD Durga Toshniwal on the complaint of the deceased’s wife. Our investigation into the matter is underway,” said sub-inspector Abhinav Sharma.
When contacted, IIT Roorkee media cell in-charge Sonika Srivastava said a statement would be released on the incident. At the time of writing the report, HT was yet to receive any statement.
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