HCL BPO Heartbroken Employee Attempts Suicide
By Nitin Paul

A young girl, aged 21,  working with a NOIDA based call center HCL Technologies in India attempted to commit  suicide in front of her ‘friend’s call center in Gurgaon following a failed affair early this week. The girl took the extreme step after she got to know of the engagement of her friend to another girl.

The girl Chinki* consumed about 10 sleeping pills right in front of the call centre Sapient in DLF Cyber City,  Gurgaon where her friend Nitin worked. The girl hurriedly swallowed the pills right in the middle of an altercation with her friend outside the call center.

Chinki was rushed to a private hospital in a BPO cab in DLF City by Nitin himself where she was treated and released the next day evening. According to the investigating officer, DLF City Phase III police station, Chinki lived in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon and worked with a NOIDA based call center, reached the call center in DLF Phase III where her friend Nitin worked at about 10.30 pm on Saturday evening.

"The girl asked Nitin to come out of the office immediately as she had something important to talk about. Already stressed, the girl had an altercation with Nitin in front of the call centre. It was during this time that she took out about 10-12 sleeping pills from her bag and swallowed them," the police officer said.  Police feel that the girl seemed to have come prepared for suicide with a bottle of water in her hand and pills in her bag.

According to police officials, as the girl started to faint, Nitin rushed her to Neelkanth Hospital. According to the doctors of Neelkanth Hospital in DLF Phase III, the girl had swallowed about 10-12 sleeping pills due to personal reasons. "She was immediately attended to and released the next day at about 6.00pm. Her elder sister and brother reached the hospital and took her back to their native place Dehradun. We had informed the police officials who had recorded her statement," the doctor added.

On the request of the family members of the girl, and taking into view her future career prospects, the DLF police dropped its decision to file a case of suicide against the girl. Surprisingly, the police also did not try to find out as to how the girl managed to procure sleeping pills which are sold by the medical stores only on the prescription of registered medical practitioners.

According to many in the BPO industry, a few employees seem to have ready access to sleeping pills and other drugs.  The heady mix of youth, money and office romances are leading to an increasing number of such soap opera type incidents. Experts believe that 99 percent of people who attempt suicide in public places are doing so as a ‘cry for help’ and expect to be saved.

(*Name changed to protect her identity)