Karnataka’s DIG of Prisons commits suicide

In a shocking incident, Karnataka’s Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) B S Abbai committed suicide at his official residence at the Bangalore Central Jail on Saturday evening.

Abbai, 58, who was in charge of the Bangalore Central Jail at Parappana Agrahara on the outskirts of Bangalore, returned to his residential quarters in the prison premises for lunch on Saturday afternoon after attending office in the morning. When he did not come out of his room for a long time, his personal staff broke open the door of the room and found him hanging from a window grill with a plastic wire.

Before committing suicide, Abbai had left behind a note, written in Kannada, stating that none was responsible for his decision to end his life. “I am disgusted over certain developments in my professional life. I am clean and have not committed any mistakes consciously. In the last few days, things have gone haywire. I do not blame anybody for my action, but I know I am doing injustice to my wife and child”, Abbai said in the suicide note.

Police said Abbai had taken the extreme step when his wife Girija and son Shivaprasad were away from home to see off a relative at the railway station. Though his wife tried to reach him on his mobile, around 5 pm, there was no response from Abbai’s mobile. Assuming that he was fallen asleep, his wife called up the assistant to wake him up, as it was time to go to office.

When there was no response to the assistant’s knocks on the door, he became suspicious and peeped through the window before breaking the door open. Efforts made by the assistant and other servants to rescue him went in vain, police said.

Abbai’s suicide, barely a year before he was due to retire, has spread shock in the police establishment. The top-ranking official, who was widely respected by officials and prison inmates alike, had also been conferred with the President’s medal for meritorious service in 2000.

Abbai’s wife Girija suspects that her husband decided to end his life, unable to bear the humiliation and harassment he received at the hands of his superior officers. But, she said she never thought he would go to the extent of killing himself and leaving her and their son in the lurch.

Meanwhile, officials pointed out that Abbai was depressed for the last few days after his senior officer Additional Director General of Police S T Ramesh paid a visit to the central jail. During the surprise inspection, Ramesh had found prisoners using mobile phones and had apparently written to the Government recommending action against Abbai for the lapses.

Meanwhile, a post-mortem was conducted and Abbai’s dead body was taken to Bailhongal in Belgaum, where his 80-year-old father stays, for the last rites.