A former IPS official in Calcutta had committed suicide on Tuesday. According to reports, he met Gaurav Dutt, an IPS batch officer from 1986, in a pool of blood at his residence. On Wednesday, the Calcutta police stated that from the preliminary post-mortem report, it was clear that Dutt had committed suicide.
Dutt’s wife had left her home in Salt Lake with her pet dog. When he returned, he had reportedly found Dutt in a pool of blood. Dutt was taken to a hospital that was bleeding profusely from a severed doll. He was pronounced dead within an hour.
According to the latest reports, it has been revealed that Dutt has held CM Mamata Banerjee responsible for his death in a suicide note. He has reported mistreatment by the TMC government.
According to reports, Dutt has written in his suicide note: “The revenge of this head of government is unparalleled, my honest and hard earned savings have been blocked.” Dutt had voluntarily retired last year. He had requested the release of his pension and other fees such as the pension fund and the gratuity, which amount to almost 72 lakhs, but he could not obtain the funds released.
Dutt had a Ph.D. in agrarian reform. His father, Gopal Dutt, was an IPS official from 1939 who became the head of security for former MP Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s. Gopal Dutt was also one of the first officers who were recruited for RAW.
Gaurav Dutt, according to a report in The Week, was the SP of the undisclosed district of Midnapore when in 1999-2000 the Keshpur political massacre took place. TMC and the leaders of the left front had participated in the brutal attack and many people were massacred. The TMC government had later initiated two departmental proceedings against Gaurav Dutt.
Dutt reportedly wrote in his suicide note that while one file of a case was deliberately lost and no corruption charges could be filed in the other, he was denied permits, training and delegations for years. He has stated that he was targeted and harassed.
Dutt has written that Mamata Banerjee has “victimized him for 10 years” and has done everything possible to “demoralize him because of his only revenge for reasons I know best”. Dutt’s note mentions that CM Mamata Banerjee is directly responsible for his suicide.
Dutt has written that West Bengal has a “toxic and infernal” environment where no IPS official can dare open his mouth.
A 1986 batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre GC Dutt committed suicide on February 19. He has accused West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee for abetment. pic.twitter.com/4CV9uT3fwB
— Sumit Kumar Singh (@invincibleidea) February 21, 2019
Dutt has also reportedly convicted many of his IPS colleagues for harassing him and ignoring his requests “to please the CM.” On Mamata Banerjee’s recent dharna in Espalande against CBI, Dutt has written that everything went to the show and the officers who sat with her have bungalow palaces and sport utility vehicles for their support.
Citing his alleged harassment and suffering as a motive, Dutt wrote: “I decided to take a drastic step to highlight the genuine problems facing honest officials in West Bengal and other parts of India.”
The BJP has demanded a CBI investigation into the death of the officer and the accusations made by him.