SCCL employee dies by suicide in Bhupalpally; police probe financial difficulties
A phone call to his wife, moments before he died, is what police in Bhupalpally are now trying to piece together into a fuller picture of what drove an SCCL employee to take his own life on Tuesday night.
Bathula Krishna Chaitanya, 32, an overman at the Adriyala Longwall Project mine under Singareni Collieries' RG-3 area, was found near Nagulamma Temple in Koyyur village, Mulugu Rao mandal. He lived at Centenary Colony in Peddapalli district and hailed from Manuguru in Kothagudem.
Koyyur police have registered a case and begun investigating. Officers said early inquiries point toward financial difficulties, though the full circumstances are still being established. His wife, Padmavathi, is among those being questioned as part of that process, police said.
No suicide note has been reported so far, and the department has not issued a formal statement beyond confirming the case registration. SCCL has not commented on the incident.
The death comes amid recurring concern among coal belt unions over debt stress among Singareni workers, even in a workforce with government-scale job security, though no official figures were cited alongside this case to establish a wider trend.
