Jalandhar, January 30
“I spoke the truth and this is what I got in return”, were the oft repeated words of 35-year-old former Punjab Technical University (PTU) clerk, Rajinder Kumar Sharma, father of a four-year-old child. For not getting his job back despite turning approver in the Vigilance case against former minister Jagdish Singh Garcha in the PTU scandal, he took his life today on the PTU campus by consuming two celphos tablets.
Rajinder died after naming the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of the PTU as responsible for his suicide. Mr Raj Kumar Gupta, MLA, who visited the Civil Hospital today to express solidarity with the family, has demanded action against those named in the suicide note.
Rajinder who had joined the university as clerk in 1998 had been thrown out by the previous Akali government five years back after he exposed the scam. Hoping to get a reward by the government for having exposed the scam, he ended up making rounds of the PTU campus to meet the Vice-Chancellor and senior university officials for years.
The endless wait finally got him, says the family. He had also taken loans from banks and was under duress due to the mounting interests.
Rajinder’s father Prem Nath said as usual his son visited the campus in the afternoon today and around 3 p.m. his brother Gurwinder Sharma received a call from some PTU employees that his brother had consumed something and was being taken to the hospital. Rajinder was declared dead later in the afternoon.
The suicide note was addressed to the Chief Minister.
The Vice-Chancellor, Mr S.K. Salwan, and the Registrar, Mr D.S. Grewal, were not available for comments.
Meanwhile, the SSP, Mr Ishwar Singh, stated that the police would take action as per the complaint put forth by the family of the deceased.
