Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Apr 25: Poornananda Rao (27), head of the firm, Agnostic Communication, which was functional in the city, ended his life by hanging himself in his office. He came to his office either late night on Wednesday or wee hours of Thursday and committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan there.

He had locked the glass door of his office before ending his life, but had not downed the shutter. The employees who came to the office on Thursday morning could see through the glass what had happened, and then alerted the police. The policemen broke open the glass door, brought the body down, and arranged for its postmortem.

Rao has left behind a suicide note written on the wall of his office, which says that he had decided to end his life because of harassment suffered by him at the hands of some people. He also has apologized to his parents for taking this extreme step. Addressing his office staff in his letter, he told them that he had to leave them high and dry because of personal compulsions. The note also has a communique addressed to a particular lady staff member, through which he has asked her to make payment to a flower vendor out of the firm's funds.

Poornananda Rao, a native of Jokatte, had studied in Mumbai as his parents are settled there. He started his own business after returning to his home district. He used to serve as an arranger for various events including competitions, functions, etc. He is survived by parents and a sister. The mortal remains were kept in the mortuary of the government hospital here, awaiting the arrival of Rao's parents from Mumbai.

The policemen, during the questioning of the firm's employees, have learnt that Rao had faced extreme harassment in the hands of two persons, Yogeesh Kamath from Puttur, and Preetam Rai from Bellare. On the basis of a complaint filed by Sujitkrishna, an employee of Agnostic Communications, the policemen here have registered case against these two people. They have been accused of abetting Rao's suicide.

It is gathered that Poornananda Rao had taken up responsibility of providing flower decoration at two different functions, one at Sullia, and the other at Puttur, recently. Rai and Kamath, it is said, expressing unhappiness at the way this responsibility was handled by Rao, kept harassing him repeatedly. Hurt by this development, Rao reportedly decided to end his life.

It is being claimed that the note left behind by Rao on the wall of his office just before ending his life, contains names of Preetam Rai and Yogeesh Kamath as his tormentors.