IAS officer's wife ends life; claims innocence in cases registered in Tamil Nadu in letter

Ahmedabad, July 23

The estranged wife of Gujarat-based IAS officer Ranjeeth Kumar J allegedly died by suicide, leaving behind a letter addressed to the Tamil Nadu chief minister where she claimed innocence in two cases registered against her in the southern state, police said on Tuesday.

Suriya (45) died at a hospital in Gandhinagar on July 21, a day after consuming a poisonous substance at a garden near her husband’s official residence.

Kumar, a 2005-batch officer who hails from Tamil Nadu, is currently posted as secretary, Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission.

He was not at home when Suriya, who had left him eight months ago, returned on Saturday but was stopped by the security personnel from entering the house, police said.

After she was admitted to hospital, a letter written in Tamil and addressed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was recovered, said Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Ravi Teja Vasamsetty on Tuesday.

“In the letter, she claimed innocence saying she had been framed in two false cases. She had left her house here nearly eight months ago and been living with her friend Raja in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Suriya and Raja, a murder convict, wanted to start a business, but the plan fell through when Raja was arrested by police as he had jumped parole, she wrote in the letter.

“Suriya was made an accused for allegedly giving shelter to a murder convict. To cover up the losses in business and meet legal expenses, she sold her property to a woman named Lakshmi. She then moved to Bengaluru and enrolled in a course to become a chef,” said SP Vasamsetty.

When Suriya urged Lakshmi to help her pay the course fees, the latter refused and asked Suriya to sell her remaining property instead.

“Suriya then allegedly got Lakshmi’s son kidnapped in Madurai, for which an FIR was registered against her and four to five others two weeks ago. In the letter, she claimed she was falsely implicated in both the cases,” the official said.

“She was absconding and police were chasing her. In the letter, she claimed that she had come back to Gandhinagar hoping to get reunited with her husband,” he added.

Hitesh Gupta, Kumar’s lawyer, said the IAS officer was in the process of filing a divorce petition when Suriya returned.

The couple were married nearly 20 years ago and their children, a son and daughter, live with Kumar, he said.

Suriya also claimed in the letter that it was Raja and Lakshmi who had hatched a plan to extract money from her on the pretext of starting a business, and Suriya borrowed money from Lakshmi for this purpose, said advocate Gupta.

“She was wanted in the kidnapping case, and the media in Tamil Nadu ran stories saying an IAS officer’s wife was involved in kidnapping of a 10-year-old boy for Rs 2 crore ransom. The boy was rescued by police. Seeing no end to her problems, she came to Gandhinagar with hope that she would get some help because of her IAS husband,” the lawyer said.

When the security guards told Kumar about Suriya’s return, he informed local police that his estranged wife who was wanted in a case in Tamil Nadu had come to his residence, Gupta said.

“As she was denied entry, she left and consumed poison. Before that she wrote the letter. She also mentioned that she had come to seek forgiveness from her husband who is a noble man who took care of their children,” the lawyer added.

Further probe was on, police said.