The contractor died by suicide at an Inspection Bungalow he was renovating. He was also the contractor for the Shivamogga Smart City Project.
Unnatural- Representative Pic
A 54-year-old civil (projects) contractor died by suicide at an Inspection Bungalow (IB) in Devarayana Durga, a temple town and hill station located in the Tumakuru district of Karnataka, around 74 kilometres from the state’s capital Bengaluru.
He was found dead in a building that he was renovating as the government tender was awarded to him.
It seemed reminiscent of the April suicide of another contractor, Santosh Patil, which led to political turmoil in the state.
The deceased has been identified as TN Prasad, a resident of Sapthagiri Layout.
He was also granted the tender for the Shivamogga Smart City project, for which he had dues of bills worth ₹16 crore from the government, sources from Devarayana Durga village told South First.
Civil contractor TN Prasad. (Supplied)
The incident came to light on the morning of Friday, 30 December, when the caretaker of the Inspection Bungalow, Srinivas, spotted the contractor hanging from a fan in one of the rooms that were getting renovated.
The incident is said to have happened on Thursday night as his suicide note was dated 29 December.
It read: “No one is responsible for my death. My last greetings for my walking friend. Happy New Year 2023.”
Srinivas alerted the others in the bungalow, who in turn informed the police.
The Kyathasandra police rushed to the spot and shifted the body to a government hospital, where he was declared dead, and his post-mortem examination was carried out.
Civil contractor TN Prasad’s suicide note. (Supplied)
“The family has been handed over the body for final rites, and as they are still in shock and in no position to talk, a complaint has not been filed so far,” said a senior police officer.
Meanwhile, sources from his village said the reason behind his death was that he ran into debts to the tune of crores, and that led to family disputes.
He briefly quarrelled with his family on Thursday night and left for the IB, sources added.
The Kyathasandra police are initially treating this as an unnatural death and are awaiting a complaint from the family to register a case.
“Prima facie, his death note states no one is responsible for his demise, and we are waiting for the family to file a complaint,” Tumakuru Superintendent of Police Rahul Kumar Shahapurwad told South First.
On 12 April this year, a 36-year-old civil contractor from Hindalga in the Belagavi district was found dead in the room of a lodge named Shambhavi in Udupi.
This was after he alleged a state minister and his aides were demanding 40 percent commission for the release of his bills worth ₹4 crore.
The deceased, identified as one Santosh K Patil, was the national secretary of Hindu Yuva Vahini.
He had accused Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister (RDPR) Minister KS Eshwarappa of corruption, and ended his life after sending a series of messages over the phone to his friends.
The Udupi Town police booked Eshwarappa — along with his aides Basavaraj, Ramesh, and others — for abetment to suicide and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe the case.
However after the SIT filed a closure report for lack of evidence, allegedly due to political pressure.
Patil’s family then approached a Bengaluru court questioning the closure report by the SIT.
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