Depression behind HAL director Baldev Singh's suicide?

Bangalore, Oct 13: Friends of HAL director Baldev Singh, who committed suicide on Oct 11 have sought an enquiry into the reason of his death.

According to reports, the HAL director had once collapsed in a board meeting and also collapsed once in the office. There are also claims that the Squadron Leader was depressed and that could be the reason of his death.

“Something was on his mind. He was not himself," said sources close to Baldev Singh.

Sources also revealed that Singh did not even attend the Air Force Day celebrations on Oct 8 this, which he never failed to attend adding that he was not "someone who would kill himself."

“This is not a typical open and shut case. The police need to first rule out everything else, before they conclude it is a suicide. There needs to be a thorough probe," said Air Marshal (retd) BK Pandey.

“we want the police to find the causal effect. We want to know the reason for his depression, because we know it is not his wife"s ailment, about which a rumour is doing rounds," said sources.

The case which has been registered with the Chikkaballapur Rural police said that though a case was registered nothing progressive had been found.

“We will be coming to Bangalore on Thursday. We will talk to the family members and also question people from HAL," said Aiyappa Reddy, Sub-Inspector.

“We will be equipped with that information before we reach Bangalore," he added.

Singh's body has been kept in the HAL hospital and will be received by his family on Thursday, Oct 13.

“The body came here at 9.15 pm or 9.30 pm on Tuesday and we were told it will be taken on Thursday," said Venkatesh, guard in-charge of the mortuary.

There are reports doing rounds that Singh was not happy with his post as director because he had to give up flying.

“Unlike the posts of General Manager or those above that, a Director"s post is not based on selection. It requires the interested candidates to apply for the post and one of them will be picked. So if he did not want it, why did he apply," said a source close to Singh.

There were also no restrictions on Baldev's flying.

OneIndia News