Retired IG’s daughter commits suicide a day before marriage

PATNA: A day before her marriage, retired IG Umashankar Sudhanshu’s daughter jumped off the terrace of 13-storey Udaygiri Apartment near Patna museum under the Kotwali police station area around 8am on Sunday. Snigdha Kumari (27), an MBBS, was doing postgraduation from a Kolkata-based medical college. She was scheduled to marry Kishanganj DM Mahendra Kumar, a 2011-batch IAS officer, on Monday. Sudhanshu retired as Darbhanga zone IG on September 30, 2017.
“No suicide note was recovered either from Snigdha’s body, car or residence. Her family members said she was undergoing medication for some ailment for the last few months. She reached the apartment from her residence at Patel Nagar in her chauffeur driven car. Snigdha had visited the apartment two days back as well. She had also kept a plastic stool inside the car. Her slippers, the stool and a plastic chair were recovered from the apartment’s terrace. The motive behind her taking such an extreme step was not known yet,” Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said.

Her family sources, however, said Snigdha had an affair with an IITian in Kolkata for the last few years and she wanted to marry him. They also said Snigdha’s mother had shifted to Kolkata more than a year back to live with her for the same reason.

Snigdha was engaged to Mahendra last year. On Saturday, a tilak ceremony of the bridegroom took place at Kankarbagh. Several IAS and IPS officers from Bihar and other states had attended the function. The marriage was scheduled to take place at ICAR research complex near Phulwarisharif jail on Monday.

Police sources said Snigdha must have conducted recce of several high-rise buildings before selecting this apartment over 5km from her residence to commit suicide.

Apartment’s guard Mithilesh Kumar told TOI that Snigdha reached there in her car around 8am and told him that she was going to meet IAS officer Rachna Patil, who lives on the 12th floor of the building. “However, instead of going to the officer’s flat, she went to the top and jumped off,” he said.

Sudhanshu’s elder daughter is married to 2006 batch IAS officer Dharmendra Singh, who is posted as director (employment and training) in the state labour department. His one brother-in-law is a chief secretary-rank officer in Uttar Pradesh while another is a DG-rank officer in a northeastern state.