Ravi Kumar, who was working as a Junior Assistant in the Health and Medical Department in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, killed himself after he was allegedly harassed by his seniors, whom he blamed in a selfie video that he posted on Facebook just minutes before he took the ultimate step.
In the video, Kumar mentions names of the senior officers in question, saying that it was their continued refusal to promote him on the basis of his caste and the subsequent failure of the authorities to respond to his RTI, which drove him to end his life.
According to ap7am.com, a Telugu media channel, Kumar in the video stated that despite being the senior most in the department, he was denied a promotion by his seniors by designation, because he belonged to a “lower caste.”
As a result of the severe caste discrimination, Kumar had filed an RTI against the said officials and had even written a letter to the Collector, but had not even gotten a call back from the latter for a simple enquiry.
In another report by The Hans India, Kumar had reportedly stated that he was transferred to Ponnuru a year ago and when he tried being re-posted to Guntur, his seniors had demanded a bribe of Rs 1 lakh to make it happen.
Accordingly, he had given Rs 70,000 but the middlemen had siphoned the amount.
In the video, Kumar blamed four officials – AO Ratna Raju, AD Prasad, Superintendent Mallikarjun Rao, and broker Banumurthy – who he says were responsible for his death.
Kumar’s wife, daughters, and relatives have demanded strong actions to be taken against the officials mentioned in the video.
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(With inputs from The Hans India and ap7am.com)
(This is a developing story)
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