‘Murder ho sakta hai’, said Dainik Bhaskar journalist before suicide; Harsh Vardhan orders inquiry

Fearing job loss and ‘murder’, Dainik Bhaskar journalist Tarun Sisodia committed suicide at AIIMS, where he was under treatment for COVID-19, on Monday. Some of his friends suspect foul play.

“Murder ho sakta hai (I can be killed),” wrote Dainik Bhaskar journalist Tarun Sisodia in a WhatsApp group before jumping off from the fourth floor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Monday.

Sisodia who was admitted at AIIMS after testing COVID-19 positive, was suffering from brain tumour and depression, according to his friends, but why he feared murder and whom he feared are questions that remain unanswered.

Many of his friends believe that he was so “cool headed and sorted out” that he could not have killed himself. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a friend of Sisodia said there are many questions that need to be answered, including the following:

• Why was he shifted to the fourth floor at AIIMS?
• Why was nobody around him at the time of the incident?
• How could he break the glass of the window?
• He was not on oxygen support for last five days, then why was he not shifted to the general ward?
• Why and on whose instructions was his mobile taken away?

Although AIIMS in a statement on Monday said that “he was stable and was planned for shifting to the general ward from ICU,” Sisodia’s friends suspect foul play. Some of them want a CBI investigation.

“Only CBI probe can reveal the truth,” said a friend of Sisodia.

Another said, “He feared that he would lose his job due to lockdown. He was going through a financial crisis also. He had complained that his boss was mentally torturing him”.

Blaming Dainik Bhaskar, a friend of Sisodia termed the suicide as an “institutional murder.” Notably, Dainik Bhaskar has not come up with any statement till now.

Following an uproar on social media, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan ordered an inquiry into the suicide even as doctors at AIIMS say they tried their best to save his life.

“I ordered AIIMS Director to immediately constitute an official inquiry into this incident, following which a high-level committee has been set up and shall submit its report within 48 hours,” said Harsh Vardhan in a post on Twitter.

Sisodia is survived by his wife and two daughters who live in Bhajanpura area of north-east Delhi.