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Scientist’s suicide still a mystery Tuesday, June 26, 2001

By Sonal Kellogg, AsianAge
Ahmedabad, June 25: Ten days after Physical Research Laboratory scientist Nagesh N. Rao committed suicide, the Satellite police are still clueless about the reasons behind the act. Police inspector P D Patil plans to ask the PRL authorities for an account from the Clarkson University officials in the USA, since Mr Patil suspects that the mystery could possibly be solved with some clues from the university.

But Mr Patil hinted that the PRL authorities were not very cooperative with the police. On Mr Rao’s besna on Monday evening, many of his colleagues and friends came but they were equally clueless. After questioning relatives, friends and colleagues, Mr Patil said that nobody has an idea as to why Mr Rao could have taken such an extreme step.

The controller of PRL, Mr M.R. G. Murthy, said that normally it was customary for the host university to intimate the guest institute if any untoward incident occurred , but he said that till date they have not got any intimation from Clarkson University. But when asked if they had asked the university about what had transpired in the initial 15 days, Mr Murthy said that they had as yet not done so.

Mr Rao had sent an e-mail to the director of PRL, Mr G S Agrawal, on April 16, just 15 days after he had landed at Clarkson University, Postsdan, New York, USA, asking permission to cut short his sanctioned one-year leave and allow him to cut short his visit ‘in view of some serious personal and family matters.’ He was sanctioned the permission the next day itself by the director. Mr Rao had left for Clarkson University, Postsdan, New York, USA on April 1, for a year-long project and had taken a sabbatical of one year.

Mr Patil, who is investigating the case, said that he found out that Mr Rao had told his wife, Dr Usha Rao, that he was not able to adjust to the workload there and was not able to cope up with the pressure.

Meanwhile, the police is still awaiting the postmortem report and though Mr Rao was found hanging from the ceiling, his body and face were bloated and so the Forensic Science Laboratory has taken a viscera sample for chemical analysis.

Incidentally, before he committed suicide, Mr Rao had eaten dinner at a friend, Mr M Mohan’s house, and had seemed a bit preoccupied then, Mr Patil said.

News Source : The AsianAge Ahmedabad Edition [ The coolest Newspaper for city ]

 

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