Days after death of IRS officer and family in Kochi, postmortem indicates suicide, and a ritual

Postmortems were held Saturday after another one of Manish’s siblings flew to Kochi from Dubai and indicated death by hanging, Kochi Assistant Police Commissioner P V Baby said. No suicide note was found, he said.

The family was from Ranchi, Jharkhand. Kochi Police’s probe will now extend to Jharkhand.

“The son and the daughter seem to have hanged themselves 4-5 hours after the death of their mother. It is assumed that after the mother died by hanging, her body was brought down, wrapped in cloth and covered with flower petals. They mighty have performed certain rituals after mother’s suicide,” Baby said, adding that Manish’s sister was unaware about what could have caused them to kill themselves.

Shalini had topped the Jharkhand PSC exam held in 2006 but alleged irregularities led to its cancellation in 2013 and eventually resulted in a CBI probe. Shalini had been arraigned as an accused and was issued a warrant this month that required her appearance in the trial.

On the other hand, Manish, a 2011-batch IRS officer, had been with customs before being posted as additional commissioner with the Central GST (audit) in Kochi. The siblings, who were unmarried, lost their father at an early age and were raised by their mother, Shakuntala, who was a college professor.

Police suspect that the three ended their lives after Shalini was issued the warrant on February 13. “If we don’t find any other reason behind the suicides, we have to link this pending case as the trigger,” the assistant commissioner said.

Meanwhile, colleagues at customs recalled Manish as an honest and simple officer who was deeply attached to his family.

“He was very pious and used to conduct poojas at residence. He was very attached to family, particularly mother,’’ said a former colleague.