Police Inspector Umesh Kachhap, Officer in- Charge of Tochanchi Police Station in Dhanbad was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his police campus residence in the wee hours of Saturday. Kachhap was said to be an eyewitness of a high-level case involving cattle traffickers, politicians and police officials, said his colleagues.
Kachhap was found hanging around 2 am on Saturday when the munshi of the police station went to his room to wake him up. He soon alerted seniors police officers in Dhanbad control room.
Dhanbad SP (Rural) Hardeep P Janardhan, who rushed to the police station, said, “We suspected it to be a suicide case. We have recovered the mobile phone and sealed his room for further investigation. We will be tracing all the calls made and received in the last few days. However, the Rural SP said that the police did not find any suicide note and the reason of suicide was unknown.
Meanwhile, family members of Kachhap said that it was unlikely that he would commit suicide. They alleged that Kachhap was murdered and then hanged and demanded high-level probe in the case.
“My uncle cannot commit suicide. We are sure that he was hanged after killing," Bipin, nephew of Kachhap, said and demanded a probe.
Sources said that Kachhhap was in extreme stress for past two days as he was getting pressurised to become an eyewitness of a murder case. Three days back a truck driver was shot dead at Topchanchi and some people wanted Umesh to be an eyewitness of the incident, said a source.
The driver of a truck, carrying leather was killed in an alleged shootout in Topchanchi three days ago. The case grabbed attention as locals alleged that police killed the driver and later made a false case against the aggrieved party and sent two persons to jail.
Kachhap was made the investigation officer of the case and was asked to submit the preliminary report within 48 hours by the Home department, said sources.
The 50 year old an officer in-charge of Topchachi police station was a 1994 batch sub-inspector. The body of the Inspector has been sent to Ranchi after conducting postmortem.