DTC bus driver's suicide under scanner after WhatsApp video surfaces

After 36-year-old DTC bus driver Sanjay Verma committed suicide at his residence in South West Delhi's Bindapur around two months ago, a WhatApp video has come to the fore where Verma has recorded his dying declaration and pointed fingers at several family members for pushing him to take the extreme step.

The father of the deceased, Mohar Singh, had received a call from his son, around 50 days ago, in which he asked his father whether he knew how to use the popular messaging application.

Singh did not suspect anything at the time, as his son had returned from work and was visibly exhausted.

When Singh had asked Sanjay if anything was wrong, his son avoided the questions and kept asking him if he knew how to use WhatApp.

Singh did not pay much heed to his son's pleas to familiarise himself with WhatsApp and eventually went to sleep. He soon was woken up by the sound of a notification on WhatsApp, in which his son had sent a video.

In the video, Verma could be seen pleading with his father to take care of his two children, aged 9 and 14.

He also asked his father to exact justice from those whose names he had taken in the video. Before Singh could make sense of the video, his granddaughter started screaming as she had found her father hanging from the ceiling fan in his room.

Verma was then rushed to a local hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead on arrival.

Now, the family is trying to get the Delhi Police to register a complaint of abetment to suicide. They have also alleged that the police are not taking any action.

However, the police have denied their claims and have said that they have put a public prosecutor to look into the matter.

Police further added that they have been following the case according to the provisions of the law.

"The legal branch has looked into the case and they have found no criminal offence from content of the complaint. We have also looked into the videos that he (Singh) has sent and have taken this step. If there is any fresh evidence he can provide, we will look into the matter," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West), Surender Kumar.

The development comes after a high profile suicide case in Mumbai, in which a 23-year-old student streamed his suicide live on Facebook.

The student talked about a suicide tutorial before jumping from the 19th floor of the hotel he was staying.