Meerut: Two days after a trainee sub-inspector (SI) hanged himself in UP’s Deoband town, a fresh audio clip surfaced on Saturday in which the police officer is heard complaining about “work pressure” and “mental torture”. SI Kuldeep Singh had hanged himself inside his house in Saharanpur’s Deoband town on Thursday morning, four months after he was posted there. He had sent a digital note to one of his seniors stating, “I wanted to be a writer. I even have poems written but became a cop. I didn’t want it.” According to police sources, Singh had finished his duty and reached his home on Thursday morning. He used a bed sheet to hang himself with the ceiling fan and did not respond to incessant calls his friend made to him. Singh, who belonged to Kankerkhera area, had sent another audio note to Deoband circle officer Siddharth.Though sub inspector Singh did not point finger at anyone in the suicide note, his immediate superior, inspector at Deoband Kotwali police station, has come under scanner.The family members of the deceased have also submitted a written complaint alleging “harassment” by the inspector, which they claimed forced SI Singh to take the extreme step.However, police brass stood by the inspector saying work pressure was normal at thana-level.Saharanpur’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dinesh Kumar P said: “He did talk about mental torture and work pressure. We would have provided him counseling had he approached senior officials before taking the extreme step.”“There is work pressure at thana-level to perform and it is normal to be scolded by your seniors. This happens to everyone. We cannot punish the inspector just because he asked the SI to do this job. He (inspector) wasn’t asking him to do anything illegal,” the SSP added.In 2018, about a dozen policemen took their lives, some of them as young as 22 years old. Most of them cited stress either because of overwork or harassment at the work place as the main reason.Speaking to TOI over the issue, UP DGP OP Singh had said: “Police job is definitely a high-stress job and in this light only we started counseling ‘sammelans’ (conventions) in which we encourage formal interactions of jawans with senior officials for the overall welfare of the personnel and de-stress them.”

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