TCS suicide triggered by pink slip fear
By Rahul Kumar

Ajit Lahiri, a senior consultant with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Delhi ended his life by hanging himself fearing that he would loose his job in the backdrop of the ongoing recessionary trend that has forced a number of tech companies to retrench staff in recent months. Archana, the wife of the consultant, feels that the fear of losing his job drove him to suicide.

Archana, in her statement registered with the police station in Gurgaon where the couple lived, said that her husband had been leading a depressed life for few days prior to taking the extreme step as he had read in the newspaper that India’s No. 1 tech company TCS was about to layoff a number of its employees.  Married about 20 years back, the couple lived in an apartment in Eldico Mansingh, Sohna Road in Gurgaon and they also owned one more apartment in Aar Dee City. The couple had had no children out of their marriage. 

In her statement to the local cops, Archana told the police that her husband had left home at 8.30 in the morning on Friday for his office but called up at 3.30 in the afternoon that he was on is way back home. She waited for her husband till about 6.00 pm and then called up on his mobile but to no avail as his phone was switched off. She took out her car and set off to look for Ajit Lahiri. As she reached Aar Dee City looking for him, she spotted her husband’s car outside their vacant apartment. Much to her horror, as she stepped into the apartment the door of which was open, she found her husband hanging lifeless from the ceiling.

Just before she fainted out of shock, Archana somehow managed to call the neighbors, security guards and her relatives living in Gurgaon to free the body of her husband from the rope he used to hang himself. Despite their best attempts, Ajit could not be revived. In her statement with the police, she said that Ajit had been looking depressed and uneasy in the last few days.  After lots of probing, Ajit disclosed to her that he feared he could loose his job as he had read somewhere in the newspaper that TCS also was likely to layoff some of its employees because of the meltdown effect. She said that she tried to console him by saying that there was nothing to worry about as they had had the option of letting out their second home in Aar Dee City and make some earning out of it if he lost his job.  Despite trying her best, he spiraled into an irretrievably suicidal mood.