R Vedantachar, 53, was in-charge headmaster at the BBMP high school in Banappa Park, in front of Cauvery Bhavan, on KG Road. He had mysteriously left his house in Ganganagar, near RT Nagar, on Saturday afternoon.
His family members, who went to the school on Monday to check on his whereabouts, found a suicide note on a table in his chamber. The note said he was committing suicide by jumping into the river Cauvery in Srirangapatna, as he was upset with the BBMP's neglect of the education department and indiscipline among his students.
Mandya district police quoted eyewitnesses as saying they saw a middle-aged man jump into the swirling waters of the Cauvery Sangam on Saturday evening.
"People shouted for help, and many tourists thought he had gone for a swim. But when there was no trace of the man, people suspected something amiss. We were informed, but couldn't find the body nearby. On Tuesday afternoon, we located the body on the shores of the river in Andhrahalli, near Arakere, in Srirangapatna taluk," a senior police officer said.
Vedantachar's brother Rajagopalachar and other relatives had rushed to Srirangapatna on Monday after seeing the suicide note. They identified the body fished out of the river as that of Vedantachar's.
A postmortem was conducted in Srirangapatna taluk hospital.
No issues with family
An M.Com graduate, Vedantachar was hoping to be made permanent headmaster and had also applied for the post, BBMP sources said. He was upset with the undue delay in processing the application.
His wife Anita had left her job with a private school some years ago to look after their two sons. His elder son Mukunda is a PU student, while Mohana is in high school.
"The family lives in a rented house in Ganganagar. Vedantachar wouldn't complain about anything. He had a happy family. He might have committed suicide because of professional reasons. Perhaps, he was denied his time-bound promotion and may have served as in-charge headmaster for long," his cousin Rajeevlochana said.
What the suicide note said
The four-line suicide note left behind by R Vedantachar read: "I am fed up with the neglect of the education department by BBMP and indiscipline among my students (boys) in standard X and committing suicide by jumping into Cauvery near Srirangapatna".
Teachers, students in shock
There was an air of disbelief in the BBMP high school at Banappa Park. Students and teachers hoped against hope that the suicide threat by their dear "Vedantachar master" wouldn't turn out to be true.
By afternoon, the confirmation arrived that his body was fished out of the Cauvery in Srirangapatna. A pall of gloom fell on the school.
"It's true we were an indisciplined lot. But we were like students of other classes. We didn't listen to him but never behaved rashly. We never harassed him. Instead, we liked him for his simplicity as he was very approachable," Arun (name changed) of Class 10 said.
"I worked with him for over four years. He never once showed he was upset. Nothing happened in school for him to take such an extreme step," said Indiramma, Hindi teacher.
The school has 38 students, of who 11 boys and eight girls are in Class 10. There were three permanent and as many outsourced teachers.
BBMP officials on Tuesday lodged a complaint with Ulsoorgate police, saying Vedantachar had blamed the civic body for his suicide. They also wrote to the commissioner, informing him of the developments.
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