The incident took place early on Friday morning after DIG C Vijayakumar had returned from his morning walk.
C Vijayakumar, deputy inspector general of police, Coimbatore range, allegedly died by suicide early Friday morning at his Camp office near Race Course in Coimbatore. Vijayakumar had been undergoing treatment for depression, the police said.
According to sources, the incident took place at around 6.50 am after Vijayakumar had returned from his morning walk. His body was later taken to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem.
“I spoke to the doctor providing treatment to Vijayakumar… four days ago, he had informed the doctor that he was under severe depression and the doctor had prescribed a few medicines. Be it Coimbatore commissioner or IG (Inspector General), everyone has been providing counselling to the officer…even his wife and daughter had come from Chennai and stayed with him in the last few days,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) (Law and Order) A Arun said.
Saying that the entire department was deeply saddened by the incident, the ADGP said that as per their initial investigation, there was no work pressure or family situation that could have led the officer to take the extreme step. “Even yesterday, he had been speaking well… the incident happened due to medical reasons, there is nothing to politicise here,” he added.
Vijayakumar, a 2009-batch IPS officer assumed charge as DIG, Coimbatore in January this year. He had earlier served as deputy commissioner of police in Anna Nagar in Chennai. Previously, he served as superintendent of police in the Kancheepuram, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin took to Twitter to express his deepest condolences. “I was deeply saddened and shocked to hear about the untimely death of DIG Vijayakumar. During his service, Vijayakumar brought laurels to Tamil Nadu police by serving well in various roles. This is a great loss to the Tamil Nadu police department. My deepest condolences to his family and friends in the police department,” Stalin said.
