Former CBI director and Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar was found hanging at his residence in Shimla on Wednesday, officials said.

It is learnt that Kumar, also the former Director General of Himachal Pradesh Police, was under depression for sometime now. Shimla Superintendent of Police Mohit Chawla confirmed the incident.

Kumar became CBI director in 2008, succeeding Vijay Shanker, in the midst of the agency’s probe into the Aarushi Talwar murder case that hogged the headlines.

Kumar later became Governor of Nagaland, they said. He was presently Vice Chancellor of a private university in Shimla, they said. The university is currently facing charges of issuing fake degrees.

The body of Kumar, a 1973-batch IPS officer, was found hanging at his residence in Shimla on Wednesday evening, they said.

A senior police officer told IANS that a suicide note was found from the crime spot.

He along with his wife was seen strolling in the evening in the city, a neighbour told the police.

The lover of cartoons, Kumar had said in an interview to PTI in 2008 after taking over as the CBI Director, “I like Tom and Jerry cartoon show. Police is like the cat while the criminals are like mice. So Tom never leaves Jerry.”

“I am in the game of Tom and Jerry and I have to do my job,” he had said.

Kumar had expressed his displeasure over the probe into the Aarushi murder case and had taken upon himself to take it to a logical conclusion. “This case is a litmus test for me. I need to know who killed Aarushi — parents or someone else. I feel agitated within over this case,” he had commented.

During his stint as the CBI Director, Kumar laid a special focus on the growing economic offences and roped in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to help the agency in probing white collar crimes.