Vodafone VP's suicide: Clueless cops quiz friend

Mumbai: The body of Chandra Murli Iyer - Vodafone vice president - was found hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck at his residence in suburban Santacruz on Friday. Mystery shrouds the cause behind the suicide of a senior Vodafone official here with family members alleging that he was blackmailed and was under tremendous pressure.

He had planned to visit his family in Delhi on Friday, the police said. Iyer's friend Ankita Rastogi, a senior officer in another mobile service provider firm, who visited his house a day before the suicide and talked to him till 10 pm, has not been given a clean chit, the police added.
"The post-mortem examination report suggested it was not a case of murder. He died due to hanging and there were no external injuries. There was no struggle either and the entire room was in order though the door was ajar when he was noticed hanging," said Madhukar Choudhari, senior inspector at Santacruz police station.
Iyer's wife alleged he was blackmailed and that he was stressed tremendously, Choudhari said. "We are trying to establish what led the senior official to take such an extreme step. If it was work pressure or anything else would only be known after a couple of days," he said.

"On Friday, Iyer called his wife telling her that he was not feeling good and would fly to Delhi in the evening. But later his body was found hanging," Choudhari added.
Rastogi, who stays in Delhi and had worked with Vodafone for a decade, had found him hanging when she visited Iyer's home, the police said. Police officials said she frequently visited Mumbai for work and would occasionally drop in at Iyer's house.
"We are still questioning Rastogi. We have not come across anything that would link her role with the suicide," he added. The police also went through the mobile phone records of Rastogi and Iyer.
Source: PTI