BALURGHAT: A police officer committed suicide allegedly by swallowing sleeping pills at his police residence in Balurghat on Thursday late at night. The deceased has been identified as Sudipta Kumar Das. He was posted as officer-in-charge at Balurghat traffic office. He was rushed to Balurghat hospital after he fell unconscious. He was declared dead by the doctor. His body was sent for autopsy. Police have registered a case of unnatural death and initiated an investigation. The deceased's wife Soma Das demanded before media persons that his husband had an illicit affair with a woman traffic volunteer of Kumarganj. "My husband was being forced to commit suicide for the illicit affair. The woman civic volunteer had also blackmailed him and extorted money from him quite frequently," she claimed. Police are investigating the truth of her demand as well. A police source said the deceased originally hailed from Malda and got service under Bengal police in 1997. He got married in 1999 with Soma who also hails from Malda. The couple have two kids. He had been posted for a long time as a police officer in South Dinajpur. He was posted as OC Kumarganj, OC Tapan, and OC (traffic) Gangarampur.