Cashier hangs himself after TV reports say he was under lens

Bengaluru: A cashier with a nationalized bank allegedly committed suicide at his residence in Viveknagar, east Bengaluru, on Wednesday.

Raviraj N Govindaswamy, an employee of the State Bank of Mysore, KR Road, left behind no suicide note, police said. Quoting family members, they said Raviraj was upset over unsubstantiated reports in local TV channels that he was under the scanner for money laundering.

A source in his family said the channels had reported that an internal enquiry was on against Raviraj and his colleagues over currency conversion. Some channels went to the extent of saying the CBI had filed a case against Raviraj.

Viveknagar police quoted senior SBM officers as saying Raviraj faced no allegation of irregularities.

Raviraj is survived by wife Revathi and two sons. One son is a software engineer, while the other studies engineering.

The cashier lived with his elder brother, Govind Raj, in Viveknagar. On Wednesday morning, the brothers went on a morning walk and returned home around 8am. Thereafter, Raviraj went to the reading room.

“Reading room was his favourite place. On Sundays and holidays, he would spend the entire day in the reading room,” a family member informed police.

Around 9am, after repeated knocks on the door elicited no reply, his wife got suspicious. She climbed the compound wall and peeped through the window of the reading room, only to find Raviraj hanging from the ceiling fan, police said.

Family members broke open the door and brought down Raviraj’s body before alerting police.

They told the cops Raviraj was aghast after TV reports cast aspersions on him. “Relatives and friends had been calling Raviraj to ask him what had happened. It was tough to answer each call,” a relative told police.

Raviraj was shy and spoke little. He slipped into depression after the false TV reports.

“Staff at the bank expressed shock over the incident. They told us Raviraj had been with SBM for the past 25 years without any black mark. He had joined the bank as clerk and was promoted to cashier,” a police source said.

When police asked his colleagues and seniors whether there was any internal inquiry against Raviraj, they denied it.

“News of CBI officers visiting the branch and questioning him and others is also baseless,” Viveknagar police quoted SBM officials as saying.

DCP, Central, Sandeep Patil said: “We will visit the bank again on Thursday.”