Citing pressure to do 'illegal works', woman UP PCS officer ends life

Citing alleged 'pressure' to allot works without floating tenders and make payment against rules, a young woman UP PCS (provincial civil service) officer ended her life in the state's Ballia town, about 425 kilometres from here.

Thirty year old Mani Manjari Rai, who was also the executive officer (EO) of Maniar Nagar Panchayat in Ballia district, was found hanging by the ceiling in her bed room at her residence in Awas Vikas Colony in the town on Tuesday.

A suicide note, allegedly left by the officer, said: ''I have been falsely implicated as part of a strategy'', according to police officials here.

The family members of Manjari, who was resident of Bhanwar Kol area in the neighbouring Ghazipur district, alleged that she had told them on numerous occasions that she was being 'pressurised' to allow works without floating tenders and make payment without any scrutiny.

''She was under tremendous pressure....she felt depressed at times,'' said a close relative of the officer.

Police officials said that they were investigating the matter. ''It appears to be a case of suicide....we have the suicide note in our possession...we are investigating the matter from different angles,'' said a senior police official in Ballia.

Manjari, who was quite active on social media, used to pen poems also. Many of her poems encouraged the women to break age-old shackles and do what they enjoyed most.