In yet another shocking incident, a former governor of Nagaland and the chief of Central Bureau of Investigation, Ashwani Kumar (69) was found dead in his Shimla residence, on late Wednesday.
As per the superintendent of police Mohit Chawla, Kumar was found hanging at his home suspecting it to be a death by suicide, however, they made no formal statement. Further, sources reported that Kumar had been depressed for some time.
On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh police chief Sanjay Kundu, who rushed to the spot, said that investigation in the case was on and a team of forensic experts has reached the crime scene and collecting evidence. Officials reported having collected a note, ostensibly written by Kumar.
Meanwhile, retired police officer AP Singh, who succeeded Kumar at the CBI, described his death to be “absolutely shocking” while citing that “I have worked closely with him as a special director. He was a gentleman. Never lost his temper. I always found him very pleasant, soft-spoken; he never ever said a word to anybody in a raised voice.”
Ashwani Kumar was a 1973 batch officer of the Indian Police Service. He served as the DGP for the state between 2006 and 2008 before being appointed as a Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a two-year period. He headed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from August 2008 to November 2010. He was the first police officer from the state to head the investigative agency.
Kumar replaced Vijay Shanker as the Director and was in charge of the central agency while it investigated the infamous Aarushi Talwar murder case. He set up a team that contradicted the findings of the first, which ruled out the parents’ involvement. The second team said they (the parents) killed Aarushi after finding her with Hemraj.
“This case is a litmus test for me. I need to know who killed Aarushi – parents or someone else. I feel agitated within this case,” Kumar was reported stating to the media sources during the ongoing probe.
Later in March 2013, the Manmohan Singh government appointed Kumar as the governor of Nagaland whilst provoking howls of protest from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was the first CBI chief to be appointed to a gubernatorial office. During this period, he was also a brief governor of Manipur.
However, Kumar had to step down from the Nagaland Raj Bhavan, weeks after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the 2014 general elections and started pushing out governors appointed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
The suicide note, allegedly written by him, says “I am going on my next journey after being fed up with life.”
