Mumbai:
Mystery shrouds the cause behind the suicide of a senior Vodafone official in Mumbai with family members alleging that he was blackmailed and under tremendous pressure.
Chandra Murli Iyer (47), Vice President of Vodafone was found hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck at his residence in suburban Santacruz on Friday, the day when he had planned to visit his family in Delhi, police said.
Iyer's friend Ankita Rastogi, a senior officer in another mobile service provider firm, who visited his house a day before the suicide and talked to him till 10 pm was not given any clean chit, police said.
"The post mortem report suggested it was not a case of murder. He died due to hanging and there were no external injuries. There was no struggle either and the entire room was in order though the door was ajar when he was noticed hanging," said Madhukar Choudhari, senior inspector at Santacruz police station.
Iyer's wife alleged he was blackmailed and that he was stressed tremendously, Choudhari said.
"We are trying to establish what led the senior official to take such an extreme step. If it was a work pressure or anything else would only be known after a couple of days," he said.
"On Friday, Iyer called his wife telling her that he was not feeling good and would fly to Delhi in the evening. But later he was found hanging," Choudhari added.
Iyer's friend Rastogi, who stays in Delhi and had worked with Vodafone for a decade, had found him hanging when she visited Iyer's home, police said.
Police officials said she frequently visited Mumbai for work and would occasionally drop in to Iyer's house.
"We are still questioning Rastogi. We have not come across anything that would link her role with the suicide," he added.
The police also went through the mobile phone records of Rastogi and Iyer.