Buxar DM Mukesh Pandey.

NEW DELHI/GHAZIABAD: Buxar district magistrate Mukesh Pandey landed in Delhi in an Indigo flight on August 10 noon and checked into the Leela Palace in Chanakyapuri. Nearly 10 hours later, he was found dead on the railway tracks in Ghaziabad.

Within that period, six Delhi Police teams frantically looked for him, alerted by calls from his family and friends that he would commit suicide.They found a suicide note at his room (No. 742) at the Leela, missed him by a whisker at a mall in Janakpuri, and were able to pick up his trail from CCTV cameras that showed him walking into Janakpuri (West) Metro station. Police tracked him all the way to Anand Vihar on the Ghaziabad border but the trail ran cold after that.

At 9.40pm, GRP constable Mahesh Chand found the 32year-old IAS officer's body lying by the tracks.

Pandey had taken leave, saying he needed to be in Patna to attend to his uncle who, he claimed, had a heart attack. But from Patna he flew to Delhi.

Police were first alerted around 4.30pm on Thursday when Pandey called his sister-in-law -who is based in south Delhi -to tell her he would kill himself. She informed Sarojini Nagar police station, which dispatched a team to the Leela. Pandey had made the call just as he sat in an Ola cab and headed for Janakpuri. While one police team searched his room for clues, another followed his phone location. “We launched a manhunt but he kept changing locations. By the time we located him, he was in West Delhi,“ said DCP (south) Ishwar Singh.

Police said Pandey left behind two suicide notes. “I am committing suicide in district centre area of Janakpuri ... by jumping off the 10th floor of the building,“ he wrote. I am fed up with life and my belief in human existence has gone. I am sorry , I love you all! Please forgive me,“ read the suicide note found in his hotel room. Police did not reveal all the contents of the note but said it pointed to Pandey being depressed as a result of marital discord. The other note was found on his body .

From the cab, Pandey also called a Delhi-based friend, who informed a senior police official (being an IAS officer, Pandey had several friends and batchmates in the capital's administrative circles and police). Another police team, dispatched by the DCP (west), joined the pursuit in Janakpuri.

Pandey had by then reached West End mall and climbed to the 11th floor. Police believe he wanted to commit suicide here but walked away, possibly because he had spotted policemen who had reached the mall too and were making their way up on the escalator. “We found his mobile phone on the railing of one of the balconies, from where he had possibly tried to jump,“ said DCP (west) Vijay Kumar. Pandey probably dropped the phone in the rush to exit the mall.

Since they could no longer track him through the cell phone, police switched their focus to CCTV cameras. They did pick him up (wearing a blue T-shirt) walking out of the mall and towards the Janakpuri (west) Metro station. The thread ran till Anand Vihar but examining CCTV footage took time and Pandey was out of the Metro grid well before the cops could catch up.

On Friday afternoon, Pandey's wife Ayushi and father-in-law Rakesh Prasad Singh reached Ghaziabad, where the autopsy was conducted and the body handed over to the family . The last rites will happen in Guwahati, where his parents live.Pandey's uncle Vasisth Narayan, who was also was present, said he had no idea why he killed himself. “He was such a nice, upright and honest man,“ he said. “There was no discord, everything was fine between him and his wife,“ he added, referring to the suicide note.

A weeping Singh repeatedly murmured 'kaayar nikla' (he turned out to be a coward) but did not speak to reporters. Ayushi remained seated in a car parked mortuary . Ghaziabad DM Ministhy S was also present.

Chand, the constable who found the body , with the head severed, on the tracks near Kotgaon (close to Ghaziabad railway station), said, “Padmavat Express had just crossed Ghaziabad and I was walking down the tracks when a passerby informed me of a body on the tracks.We discovered a suicide note and other documents which helped us ascertain his identity.“



In Video: Buxar DM found dead at Ghaziabad railway station, suicide suspected