‘Forced to clear inflated bills’: 2 Assam govt officials named in woman engineer’s suicide note arrested

She was found dead in her apartment in Bongaigaon on Tuesday, and a purported suicide note was retrieved from the site, said police.

The Bongaigaon Senior Superintendent of Police, Mohan Lal Meena, confirmed that two officials she had named while describing alleged workplace pressure have been arrested after an FIR was registered for abetment of suicide based on a complaint by her family.

“The two individuals are being interrogated,” he said. They had been posted as PWD Executive Engineer and Sub-Divisional Officer in the district, respectively.

In the purported note, she has alleged “extreme stress” and lack of guidance in the workplace after she was assigned a project for a mini-stadium, saying that she lacked experience and help.

She alleged that the contractor’s estimate had “major discrepancies and variations” and that two officials she named made her continue on the project on her own despite her asking for help.

Her father also alleged that she had been under pressure to clear inflated bills.

“She didn’t tell us anything in particular. She had just told me that one day, she would be sent to jail while her superiors would just be transferred as punishment… She was scared; they were pressuring her to pass inflated bills. If work has been done for Rs 1 crore, pass a bill of Rs 2 crore. She only wanted to go by the rules. The main reason is that they were pushing her to do illegal things,” he claimed.

Asked about the allegations by reporters during a visit to Dibrugarh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “We are yet to fully investigate the allegations, but for now, the SDO and Executive Engineer have been arrested.”