Odisha: RBI officer allegedly commits suicide in a hotel room

A General Manager of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday allegedly committed suicide at a hotel in Chandikhole within Barachana police limits in Jaipur district of Odisha. His body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hotel room. The 52-year-old man has been identified as Asish Ranjan Samal, a resident of Naraharipur village in Jajpur district. He was working as the GM in the Guwahati branch of the RBI in Assam.

Samal had come to his village to meet his mother on October 24. Thereafter, he went to Bhubaneswar to meet his wife, a doctor at the Kalinga Institute of Medical Science (KIIMS), and son, a 12th standard student. On the same day, he returned to Chandikhole and checked into the hotel, as per reports.

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According to reports, on Friday morning, the hotel staff knocked at the door of his room but he did not respond. When Samal did not open the door until late in the day, the hotel staff called the police. The Barachana police reached the hotel, broke open the door and found Samal hanging from the ceiling fan. His body was sent to the hospital for postmortem.

The exact reason behind Samal’s death is yet to be ascertained. A police official said the investigation will reveal why he took the extreme step. The identity of the man was confirmed by the documents provided by Samal at the time of check-in, the Inspector-In-Charge of Barachana police station, Deepak Kumar Jena said.

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Another Incident

Earlier on October 1, a Deputy General Manager with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committed suicide by jumping from the eighth floor of the RBI building at Bandra-Kurla Complex. According to the police, 51-year-old Sushant Kumar Patnaik left behind a suicide note stating that nobody was responsible for his death. Patnaik jumped from the fire exit on the eighth floor of his office building at around 1.30 pm. He was immediately rushed to the Sion Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

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"We found a letter in his pocket with the words 'No one is responsible'. It had his signature and the date," said Police Sub-Inspector Shabbir Qazi of the Bandra-Kurla Complex police station. "Many people were present in the office, but since he was a senior officer, Patnaik had a cabin to himself and no one suspected that he was about to take his life," he added.

According to the police, the fire exit is usually deserted and hence the possibility of someone seeing Patnaik and stopping him was low.

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