The Samajwadi Party demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the suicide by senior Uttar Pradesh Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Harminder Raj Singh, who committed suicide at his residence here early Sunday.
Alleging acute intimidation and harassment of the state bureaucracy, party's state unit chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the chief minister's secretariat as a "torture chamber".
"There is enough reason to believe that Harminder Raj Singh, the state's principal secretary (housing), was driven to take the extreme step solely on account of some harassment by the chief minister's office."
"The state government is bound to hush up the whole case. Therefore, it would be appropriate to entrust an inquiry into the case to the CBI," Akhilesh said at a press conference here.
However, speaking on behalf of the state government, Additional Director General of Police Arvind Jain ruled out any foul play. "It was amply evident that Singh had shot himself in the temple following which he died instantly," he said.
"The officer was a patient of hypertension, but since we have not been able to speak to the members of the family so far, we cannot say what led him to commit suicide," Jain added.