BENGALURU: A 45-year-old woman railway employee, appointed as a technician in the Bangalore Railway Division on compassionate grounds following her husband’s death, committed suicide by hanging herself inside her house in the MG Road Railway Quarters on Friday. In a voice message recorded by the victim Sahita Devi, minutes before her death, she accuses seven of her co-workers for being responsible for her extreme step and she pleads that they be brought to book. However, her son, in an FIR filed at the Magadi Road police station, stated that his mother had been in a depressed state of mind for some time.
She sent the chilling, emotional message, running to a minute and 43 seconds and rendered in hushed tones, to a person close to her through her phone. The clip has been doing the rounds among railway officials and police officials since Friday through WhatsApp. The New Sunday Express has a copy of the purported audio clip. Devi was working in the carriage and wagons department since February 13, 2013. In her message, she alleges that these seven people were responsible for her death: senior section engineers Ramakrishna, R M Srinivas and Supriya, helpers Lolalkshi, Jennifer and N Ravi Kumar and technician Srinivas.
According to a highly placed railway source, professional harassment was allegedly the reason behind Devi resorting to this extreme step. “It is understood that the employee was taunted and abused on Thursday, the day before she ended her life, by her seniors in front of all when she turned up late for duty. It might have upset her enormously,” the source said. Another top railway official billed her as “a habitual latecomer.”
A police officer at Magadi Road police station said that her son had attributed her death to depression in the FIR. He added that her son said that she was cheerful on Friday when she packed him lunch before he left for work. He got a call around 11 am on Friday asking him to come home immediately. Her second son is in the second year of college. A senior railway official said that most employees who get recruited on compassionate grounds in Railways do not feel comfortable in their roles due to the lack of technical skills. Top railway officials refused to comment.