It was business as usual until a gunshot ended the DIG’s life

Chennai, July 7 (PTI) On the night before the death of C Vijayakumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Coimbatore Range, he, along with his wife and daughter, is said to have attended a birthday dinner at a fellow officer’s residence in Coimbatore.

The next morning also did not seem very unusual in the Vijayakumar residence.

He usually checked the Daily Situation Report (DSR) of the districts under his command at 7 am. On Friday, the approximately 45-year old officer checked the DSR at 6.30 am. He then walked up to where his PSO’s ((Police Standing Officer)) pistol was safely kept, picked it up, walked out to the portico of his camp office in Coimbatore and allegedly pulled the trigger on himself.

Vijaykumar’s wife and his daughter, along with the help of some police personnel, rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared ‘brought dead’.

“The death was instant, ” a senior police officer told PTI.

“There was nothing that was odd about the officer. He has worked in my team in the past. He was a good officer,” Coimbatore city police commissioner V Balakrishnan told PTI.

ADGP Law and Order, A Arun, told reporters in Coimbatore citing preliminary investigation, Vijayakumar was undergoing treatment for “depression” for the past few years. “I have spoken to the doctor treating him (Vijayakumar) who shared the information. He had consulted the doctor four days ago for mental pressure and had been given different medicines,” Arun told reporters.

On Thursday afternoon, a source said, the Inspector General of police had asked if there was something wrong with the officer as he looked worried. Vijayakumar had said that he had not had a good night’s sleep despite taking pills. Senior officials who had worked with Vijaykumar knew that for several years he was under medication for severe depression, anxiety, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar-related issues, a source said.

“Senior officers have counselled him individually and sometimes along with his wife, and have tried to support him with his mental health issues,” Balakrishnan said.

While the support did not seem adequate in the end, a senior police official said that measures were being taken to counsel police officers battling mental health issues in the state.

Balakrishnan said that a pilot project for providing mental health support to police personnel which started in Madurai some years ago, was eventually expanded throughout the state.

“Police Well-Being Programme was launched in 2018 and in three years the entire police force in the state was covered,” he added.

The project involved training some officers in each district by specialists at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Bengaluru. And these trained officers will then provide support and counselling to fellow officers in their respective districts.

“In Coimbatore, the concept of Station Happiness Officers was introduced covering all stations in the city where a trained officer in each police station will have to look out for any symptoms of mental stress or other issues and provide counselling or support in any manner possible,” the city police commissioner added.

However, officers say that in the case of police suicides, it mostly is a case of a “mix of personal and professional issues.”

An IPS officer who did not want to be named said the state government has been creating new police stations across the state but not creating new positions for these stations.

“It is a case of redeploying existing officers at the new stations. The net vacancies may be coming down because of redeployment, but new appointments are not being made at the required pace,” the officer pointed out.

The opposition parties in the state have raised the issue of police officers being under tremendous stress because the state is not filling up over 10,000 existing vacancies in its police force.

(Tamil Nadu mental health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050 provide support to overcome suicidal thoughts.)