The death of Mukesh Pandey, District Magistrate of Buxar in Bihar, has come as a rude shock to the nation. The senior IAS officer was found dead near the railway tracks about one km from the Ghaziabad railway station last night, with police recovering a suicide note from the spot.
Officials of the Government Railway Police (GRP), who reached the spot, near Kotgaon here, said prime facie it appeared to be a case of suicide.
The purported suicide note, however, suggests that Pandey first planned to jump off the 10th floor of a building in west Delhi but then decided otherwise.
A senior Delhi Police official said that police received information from his friends that Pandey would commit suicide and had gone to a west Delhi mall. A police team was immediately rushed to the mall but could not trace him.
After scanning the CCTV footage, it was found that he was leaving the mall and going towards the nearby metro station, the official said, adding on analysis of CCTV footage there, he could not be traced.
Later, Delhi Police learnt that he had committed suicide, the official said.
In the suicide note that was recovered from the spot, Pandey, a 2012-batch IAS officer, said he was fed up with his life and has lost his "belief in human existence".
I am committing suicide in district centre area of Janakpuri in west Delhi...by jumping off the 10th floor of the building. I am fed up with life and my belief in human existence has gone. My detailed suicide note is kept in a Nike bag in room 742 of a five-star (name withheld) hotel in Delhi. I am sorry, I love you all! Please forgive me," said the note, according to Senior Superintendent of Police H N Singh.
Singh said it was not immediately known at what time or how Pandey committed suicide. The post-mortem would be conducted today.
Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar codoled the IAS officier's death in a message.
"Mukesh Kumar Pandey's death is a very heart-rending incident. He was an efficient administrator and a sensitive officer...May his soul rest in peace," he said in his condolence message.
Kumar prayed to the almighty to give strength to his family members to bear the loss of their loved one, an Information and Public Relations Department release said.
(With agencies)
