CBI registers case against three for abetting suicide of engineer

Guwahati, Oct 15 (PTI) The CBI has registered a case against three persons for allegedly abetting the suicide of an assistant engineer of the Public Works Department in Assam's Bongaigaon district.

The Assam government had requested the Centre that the case be transferred to the CBI, and accordingly, it was done on October 7, an official release said on Wednesday.

A case has been registered against an architect of a private company Debajit Sarma, Bongaigaon PWD's Executive Engineer Dinesh Medhi Sharma and SDO Aminul Islam.

It is alleged that the deceased Joshita Das was under tremendous pressure from her seniors/colleagues/contractors, including the three accused, regarding a mini stadium project of PWD in Bongaigaon.

It is also alleged that she was forced, coerced, criminally intimidated and threatened to prepare and pass estimates and bills in an irregular manner, which took a severe toll on her, for which she had to take this extreme step of ending her life.

Investigations into the case were continuing, the release added.

The Assam cabinet had approved the transfer of the investigation to the CBI on July 31.

Earlier, the state government had constituted a seven-member Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate the case, and the three persons were arrested.

The assistant engineer was found dead in her rented apartment on July 22 and was suspected to have died by suicide as she was allegedly under immense pressure from seniors to overlook malpractices in the construction of a mini-stadium in Bongaigaon.

The incident site was videographed and examined by officials of the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL) and the crime scene officer while inquest, post-mortem examination, Call Detail Record (CDR) analysis, and seizures had been completed. PTI DG DG RG