Over 50 sanitation workers of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) staged a protest in front of Kadma Police Station on Friday, demanding the arrest of an official, accused of harassing an employee who has gone missing.
Sanjay Chutel (34), a supervisor of the JNAC, has been missing from Thursday after allegedly leaving behind a suicide note.
According to his family, Chutel, father of a five-year-old, told his wife that he was going out for some ‘special work’ at 4 am on Thursday and has not returned since. His family found the note in the evening, and rushed to the police station to lodge.
Though Chutel did not mention anyone’s name in the note, his wife Sudha Devi later alleged that harassment by senior official Saurabh Kumar was the reason that he might have committed suicide. She said that Kumar would pass adverse comments about him, and even snatched his gate pass on one occasion.
On Friday, Kadma OC Thakur assured the protesters of every possible action to trace Chutel and promised an impartial investigation, following which they dispersed.
Talking to The Telegraph Online, Thakur said that an initial probe has been launched into the case.
“From the initial probe we found that the missing supervisor had attended his duty till Tuesday, and that his gate-pass had never been snatched by Saurabh Kumar as alleged by the complainant. We are still looking into the matter seriously and are talking to other JNAC officials to find out whether Sanjay was being harassed by Saurbh Kumar or not.”
Special officer, JNAC, Krishna Kumar backed Saurabh, saying he is not the kind of a person to harass someone for no reason.
“Saurabh Kumar also told me that the JNAC staff are worried about Sanjay’s whereabouts,” he said.
A senior JNAC official said that Chutel was appointed on a casual basis, but he was not performing properly since the past couple of months. He would not attend his duty regularly, citing health problems, but would roam around in the locality, thus inviting the ire of the senior officer, the official said.
