Guwahati/Silchar: A senior auditor of a nationalised bank was arrested on Monday on charges of abetment to suicide of a fellow officer in Cachar district of Assam, police said.
Cachar Police on Monday arrested senior auditor of State Bank Of India on charges of abetment to suicide of Kuldeep Das Gupta, the SBI manager of the Kabuganj Branch, officials said.
Das Gupta, who was a resident of Silchar Ambikapatty, has left behind his mother.
On January 7, cleaners and guards of SBI Kabuganj (Sonai) branch found the body of the branch manager in the bank’s record room. Though the branch has CCTV cameras, the record room was outside its purview.
Sources said that on Friday night, Kuldeep didn’t go home at night saying that he had some pending work as audit was underway. On Saturday morning around 8 am, he spoke to his mother over the phone. At about 9:30 am, however, the cleaner, guards and other staff arrived at the office and found his body.
Kuldeep’s mother lodged an FIR at the Sonai Police Station regarding her son’s mysterious death. In the FIR, Kuldeep’s mother Aloka Dasgupta alleged that her son was tortured mentally by the bank’s audit officer, who allegedly put pressure on him and created difficulties at the workplace.
“I strongly suspect that two persons named – Yogendra Pandey (Audit Officer, SBI) and Shibu Nath (sub staff of SBI Kabuganj Branch) – either killed my son to hide their misdeeds or abetted him to die by suicide,” said Aloka Dasgupta.
On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered at the Sonai police station and an investigation started. “The Guwahati-based auditor was detained on Sunday night by Cachar police,” Cachar Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta said.
“Following the investigation, prima facie it appeared that he abetted Kuldeep to commit suicide. He had asked for illegal gratification, which created a situation that forced Kuldeep to take his own life. He was staying in Barak Valley for more than a week along with his family,” Mahatta said.
After interrogation, the police arrested the accused, who is working as the chief manager of audit and the bank’s zonal inspection office in Guwahati.
“The accused deleted some messages from his mobile, that were exchanged between him and the deceased. We are trying to retrieve those messages,” the SP said.
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Cachar SP Numal Mahatta further mentioned that police have received complaints from other district SBI banks also against the audit officer.
“We have received complaints from various branch managers of SBI in Barak Valley that Pandey asked for illegal gratification from them. The auditor also asked Kuldeep to buy him a ticket for the ODI match between India and Sri Lanka to be held in Guwahati on Tuesday as well as other favors. We are investigating from all angles and if any other people are involved in this then we will bring them under the ambit of law as well,” said the SP.
However, Yogendra Pandey has denied all the allegations levelled against him.
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