In Cachar Auditor caught for assisting SBI branch manager’s suicide

Guwahati/Silchar: A senior auditor of a nationalized bank was arrested on Monday for instigating the suicide of a fellow officer in Assam’s Cachar district, police said.

The Cachar police on Monday arrested a senior auditor of the State Bank of India for instigating the suicide of Kuldeep Das Gupta, the SBI manager of the Kabuganj branch, officials said.
Das Gupta, who hailed from Silchar Ambikapatty, is survived by his mother.

On January 7, the cleaners and guards of the SBI Kabuganj (Sonai) branch found the dead body of the branch manager in the bank’s record room. Although the branch has CCTV cameras, the record room was out of scope.

Kuldeep did not go home on Friday night saying he had some pending work as the audit was going on, sources said. At around 8 am on Saturday morning, he spoke to his mother on the phone. However, at around 9:30 am, the cleaner, guard and other staff reached the office and found his dead body.
Kuldeep’s mother filed an FIR at the Sonai police station regarding the mysterious death of her son. In the FIR, Kuldeep’s mother Aloka Dasgupta alleged that her son was mentally tortured by the bank’s audit officer, who allegedly put pressure on him and created difficulties at the workplace.

Alok Dasgupta said, “I strongly suspect that two persons – Yogendra Pandey (Audit Officer, SBI) and Shibu Nath (sub-staff of SBI Kabuganj branch) – either told my son about his misdeeds. Killed to cover up or incited him to commit suicide,” said Aloka Dasgupta.
Based on the complaint, a case has been registered at the Sonai police station and an investigation has been started. “The Guwahati-based auditor was detained by the Cachar police on Sunday night,” said Cachar Superintendent of Police Nimal Mahattta.

“After investigation, prima facie it appeared that he had induced Kuldeep to commit suicide. He had asked for illegal gratification, which created a situation that forced Kuldeep to take his own life. “He was staying with his family in Wadi Barak for over a week,” Mahatta said.
After questioning, the police arrested the accused, who is working as chief manager of audit and zonal inspection office of the bank in Guwahati.

The accused deleted some messages from his mobile, which were exchanged between him and the victim. We are trying to recover these messages,” the SP said.
Cachar SP Nimal Mahatta further said that the police have also received complaints from other district SBI banks against the audit officer.

“We have received complaints from various branch managers of SBI in Barak Valley that Pandey sought illegal comfort from them. The auditor asked Kuldeep about Tuesday’s ODI match between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati. Also asked to buy tickets for other favourites. We are investigating from all angles and if anyone else is involved, we will also bring them to book,” the SP said.

However, Yogendra Pandey has denied all the allegations leveled against him.