Guwahati: A tragic incident in Assam’s Bongaigaon district has sparked public anger after police arrested two senior officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) on charges of mentally harassing a junior engineer who later died by suicide.
The victim, Joshita Das, worked as a Junior Engineer with the PWD (Housing) division and had served in the area for nearly a year. On Monday, authorities discovered her body hanging in her rented residence at Barpara.
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Investigators recovered a suicide note that directly accused two senior PWD officials, former Executive Engineer Dinesh Sharma Medhi and former Sub-Divisional Officer Aminul Islam, of subjecting her to continuous mental harassment.
In her note, Joshita described how the two officials pressured her to clear a contractor’s bill for a project titled “MIN Stadium at Borsojgaon under Gossaigaon LAC,” despite serious flaws in the documentation. The project, handled by M/s Achetic Creations, allegedly lacked architectural plans and critical records.
She also revealed that the contractor, Rudra Pathak, had not appointed a site engineer, leaving her to manage technical responsibilities on her own. Despite raising repeated concerns and requesting assistance, Joshita wrote that she received no support. She further alleged that architect Debajit Sarma submitted an estimate riddled with errors, which she flagged without result.
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Although both Medhi and Islam had recently been transferred, Medhi to Nalbari NH Division and Islam to the Chief Engineer’s office, Joshita claimed they continued to pressure her from their new roles.
After her death, Joshita’s mother lodged a police complaint, accusing the two officials of ongoing harassment. “She often spoke about unbearable work pressure. It broke her mentally,” her mother told reporters.
Acting on the FIR and initial evidence, Bongaigaon police arrested both Medhi and Islam. Authorities confirmed that the suicide note is now key evidence in their investigation.