Another Karnataka police officer commits suicide

Bengaluru, July 8 Another Karnataka police officer committed suicide on Thursday at Madikeri in Kodagu district of the state, police said.

"We found the body of deputy superintendent of police M.K. Ganapathy, 51, hanging by rope to a ceiling fan in a lodge room. He was in uniform with service revolver around the waist," Kodagu district police superintendent Rajendra Prasad told IANS on phone.

This is the second such incident this week two days after Chikkamagaluru rural deputy superintendent of police Kalappa Handibagh, 34, hanged himself at Belagavi, about 500 km from Bengaluru.

On being alerted by the Vinayaka lodge staff in the hill town, police rushed to the spot and lowered Ganapathy's body hanging from ceiling by a rope.

"We have registered a case of unnatural death and informed Ganapathy family. We will investigate what forced him to take his life, as a suicide note has been found in the lodge room," Prasad said.

Ganapathy was transferred to Mangaluru inspector general police office, about 360 km from Bengaluru, in May.

According to sources, Ganapathy went to Madikeri from Mangaluru earlier in the day and checked into the lodge and was seen alive in the room till afternoon.

The incident came to light later when the lodge receptionist when to check for him as some police personnel came to visit him.

Incidentally, in a television interview to a local (Kannada) news channel aired in the afternoon in Kodagu district, Ganapathy had accused his senior officers of harassing him and putting pressure on him in various cases.

"He (Ganapathy) declared that if anything happened to him, former state home minister K.J. George, Lokayuktha (ombudsman) IGP Pranab Mohanty and ADGP (intelligence) A.M. Prasad would be responsible.

A 1991 batch officer of the state cadre, Ganapathy entered the police service under sports quota. He hailed from a hamlet at Siddhappur near Madikeri.