Pune: Infosys engineer family alleges he was forced to commit suicide, No FIR against live-in girlfriend yet

Pune, May 11, 2020: Infosys engineer Prasoon Jha (28) was forced to commit suicide under immense emotional strain, mental pressure and extreme humiliation, said Jha’s relative Nibedita Dash, who contacted Punekarnews.in to share their side of the story.

Jha from Darbhanga in Bihar and his girlfriend, both worked with the same IT company in Hinjawadi, and were living together for the last three years in Laurel society in Wakad. After their arguments, she threw him out of the flat on the morning of April 28. He also had a sharing room in the same society. He went there, and later at around 2 pm he jumped from the 12th floor of the building.

Wakad police station under Pimpri Chinchwad police commissionerate has registered an accidental death (AD) report for further investigation. According to police, there had been arguments between Jha and his girlfriend over their salaries, job issue (as Jha earned Rs one lakh less than her) etc. “We have recorded the statements of Jha’s roommates. We will soon record his girlfriend’s statement also. No FIR has been registered yet,” said Police Sub Inspector Avdhut Shingare, who is investigating the case.

According to Jha’s relative Nibedita, Jha was the eldest child of the family. He was calm, quiet, well-mannered and introverted since childhood. He spent all his time with her. He had no social life and was a very private person. “The family is broken apart with this untimely loss and unanswered questions about the circumstances which forced him to take this step. We didn’t even get a chance to carry out his last rites, and he was cremated in Pune with no family by his side. Imagine the pain of the parents, whose child is cremated and they don’t even get to have a last glimpse of him”, Nibedita said.

She also clarified that the girl was not his fiancé but his live-in girlfriend. Also, there was no progress on talks around marriage as her family never responded on planning the marriage thing. “Prasoon was financially stable, and came from a well to do family. Salary difference as per his girlfriend was Rs one lakh per annum. Does that make any difference at all? While speaking to me she never mentioned this being a cause of their arguments. Rather she said that she wanted to go to the North and open an NGO”, Nibedita informed.

According to her, Prasoon had shared his wishes of getting married to his girlfriend, who was his colleague and joined Infosys at the same time as him five years ago. He told his family about her a few months ago. The family is very open-minded, and had no inhibitions about his choice. Prasoon’s mother was keen to speak to her, but she was never keen to take up a conversation with his mother. She gave reasons that she will speak once he changes his job. Prasoon’s parents tried to speak to her parents but this could never materialise as there was no response from them.

“When I called her after the shocking news, she was abnormally calm and composed. Normal people will get disturbed after seeing a gruesome dead body of any random human being, and this was her boyfriend of six years, but there was hardly any remorse. She said Prasoon used to say love is more important in life, but I used to say money is also important in life. She told me that he was insecure because I was earning Rs one lakh per annum more than him”, Nibedita said.

She termed it ‘rubbish’, as Prasoon was from a very well-to-do and financially stable family. “Regarding his package, IT professionals have salary brackets, and a difference of meagre 1L PA is very common and one switch could have fetched him a package more than that. In COVID times, while there is so much of constraint on jobs and salaries, not sure why this was even an issue. His girlfriend told me (Nibedita) that she was pressuring him for a job change and scaring him of not getting married so that he does well in his career,” Nibedita said.

What transpired between Prasoon and his girlfriend?

Nibedita said that according to his roommates, Prasoon walked into the room with few clothes and on asking he said ‘girlfriend se ladai hua’ (had a fight with my girlfriend). “She kept on getting into heated arguments and taunting Prasoon about his job, salary and marriage. Prasoon started getting suspicious as she was ready to live in but not marry him, and kept delaying talks with his family. This went on for three days and on the morning of 28 April, she asked him to leave. She dragged him out of the house. Prasoon called his mother in despair around 6:30 am and told her about the breakup,” Nibedita said.

She also said that it was wrong to throw his brother out of the house, and that their house was big enough to let him stay in the other room even after a fight. Since the family wasn’t aware of this live-in setup, he couldn’t disclose that he was thrown out of the house. His mom asked him to stay calm and not to worry and that the family is there with him. He was tired, so he later went to his other flat and went to the room to sleep.

He called the girl around 12.30 pm and asked her to keep his belongings outside so that he could collect them. She again refused saying that she will return his stuff, as she needed space at the moment. According to his flatmates, around at 1:15 pm he got dressed and went out. That was the last time they saw him. Later around 2 pm, they came to know that he had jumped off from the 12th floor at 1:30 pm. His last message to his girlfriend was “You used me well, say sorry to mom” at 1:28 pm.

Family demands proper investigation

Nibedita further said that Prasoon couldn’t take this humiliation and extreme emotional trauma. “Had it been a girl committing suicide, the live-in partner would have been grilled by police. Why not now? Why was she not taken for a detailed investigation? We want this to be investigated properly, and we are suspicious that this has a lot more to it than the version shared by her with us and others. The family needs an answer and proper enquiry around the authenticity of all information shared.”

“We feel that she wanted to get rid of him and since he was not ready to leave, she took to violent ways to emotionally abuse him and mentally pressurise him so much that he would leave. We can’t get him back but we need our answers and a fair and unbiased trial,” she said.

Media has always been lenient to women, but if a girl can be mature enough to decide on living in and working in IT, it’s a matter of fact that she should be at least named while the stories get published. I being a woman object to any such biases approach towards any crime. Love can’t be so cruel.

However, Punekarnews.in has withheld the name of the girlfriend as the police investigation is still going on.