The image shows deceased engineer's brother Vikram Pandey. (NDTV)
In Bihar, nearly 16,000 engineers have ceased work demanding a CBI inquiry into what they describe as mysterious death of an executive engineer Yogendra Pandey. Pandey was working with the road construction department and was posted at Sitamarhi.
His family said that on June 6, Pandey was assaulted by a local contractor who he had refused a cash advance against rules.
It is a case that has shades of the Manjunath murder case
Pandey had asked for police protection, but was not given any. About two weeks later, on June 18, his body was found outside the Sitamadhi Collector's Office.
"The administration is doing nothing. The Superintendent of Police is also involved. To us, it's a case of murder," Sanjay's brother Sanjay Pandey said.
The first post-mortem examination in Sitamadhi said Pandey committed suicide. It also pointed to the suicide note in his pocket.
But the Bihar Engineers' Association cried foul and a second post-mortem examination was ordered, which said that the engineer was hit on the head with hard object before he fell to his death.
"We demand that the case be handed over to the CBI. Or else we will go on an indefinite strike from June 25," said Rajeshwar Mishra, secretary, Bihar Engineers' Association.
The police officer who filed a case of suicide has been replaced and the contractor who allegedly assaulted Pandey is absconding.
But till the cause of death is established for sure, the protests are unlikely to subside.