Death by spending

A friend told me the tragic story of a senior policeman who shot himself recently.

The sensational story made the headlines, but no newspaper could give its readers an idea of what really had pushed him to pull the trigger on himself. My friend told me the inside story.

Policemen wield a lot of power, and the general impression is that they make quite a bit of money on the side, but their salaries are a pittance.

Daya Nayak, the "encounter specialist" who has officially killed 55 gangsters, is a hero in the popular imagination, and the Kannada movie industry saluted his bravery with an eponymous film. (I recently saw some parts of it dubbed in Hindi and playing on Sahara One). But his salary, a newspaper reported, was Rs 12,000 a month. Not exactly the kind of money that would let you live a life of middle class comfort in Mumbai. Daya Nayak was suspended on the charge that he had made a fortune by illegal means, and he is now fighting a departmental battle.

To come back to my friend's story, this inspector working in a central Bangalore area was constantly under pressure from his wife to spend, spend, spend. Weekend parties, clothes, stuff... He had apparently borrowed heavily. Just before he died, his wife was pressing him to send their daughter to the US so that the girl could spend some time with her husband. The son-in-law was doing a course abroad, and had some days free between terms.

Bangalore can be terribly unkind to people who are not affluent. The inspector didn't have the money for the fare, and couldn't bear the pressure of being told he wasn't being a dutiful father either. He took out his service revolver, and put an end to his misery.