Marital discord behind Buxar DM’s suicide, say police

I am a simple peace loving man. Since marriage, there have been ups and down in my life. We both have different personalities.

GHAZIABAD: An IAS officer who allegedly committed suicide has purportedly cited marital discord as the reason for the decision to end his life, describing himself as a peaceful man “fed up with life”.

The body of Mukesh Pandey, 29, was recovered on Thursday night from a railway track at Ghaziabad. The head was severed from the torso.

Besides detailed suicide notes found on him, police also recovered a self-shot mobile video, believed to have been shot in Bihar’s Buxar circuit house, where he was posted as the district magistrate.

HT has a copy of the video, which is around five minutes in duration. “I am a simple peace loving man. Since marriage, there have been ups and down in my life. We often argue on something or the other. We both have different personalities,” Pandey is heard saying in the clip.

He described his nature with that of his wife as “chalk and cheese” and said, “She is an extrovert while I am meek and introvert in nature”. Pandey, who hails from Assam, was married in 2014 into a prominent business family of Patna. CHANDIGARH A local court on Saturday sent Vikas Barala, son of Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party president Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar — both accused in the Chandigarh stalking case — to judicial custody till August 25.

The two appeared before duty magistrate Gaurav Datta at the Chandigarh district courts.

The Chandigarh police submitted an application for their judicial remand for 14 days. The court allowed the application. Vikas, 23, and Ashish, 27, were held for allegedly stalking Varnika Kundu, a 29-year-old DJ, late on Friday night.

Kundu is a daughter of a senior IAS officer.