A 28-year-old female Range Forest Officer posted in Maharashtra’s Amravati has committed suicide.
The victim in a purported suicide note alleged sexual harassment and torture by an IFS officer, officials said on Friday.
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The young woman RFO, Dipali Chavan Mohite died on the spot on Thursday when she shot herself at her official quarters in the Harisal village near the tiger reserve with her service revolver.
Her blood-splattered body with the gun was recovered later by relatives and colleagues.
A no-nonsense and tough officer, famous as ‘Lady Singham’ for her dare-devilry against the forest mafias, Dipali’s husband Rajesh Mohite is working as a Treasury Officer in Chikhaldhara, while her mother had gone to her native Satara when she resorted to the extreme step.
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Dipali’s family refused to take over her body for the last rites till the Amravati Police nabbed the accused named in her suicide note, sending shockwaves in the forestry circles across the state.
Acting swiftly, the Amravati police went after the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Vinod Shivkumar, who figured in Dipali’s 4-page suicide note, with an earnest plea that strict action should be taken against him so that nobody else should suffer her ordeal.
An IFS officer, Shivkumar, was detained at the Nagpur railway station when he was waiting to board a train to Bengaluru and was being brought to Amravati for further formalities.
Among other things, she has mentioned how Shivkumar, abused his position, harassed her sexually and inflicted mental trauma on her continuously for the past few months.
On several occasions in the past, Dipali had complained about Shivkumar to his senior, MTR Field Director, M.S. Reddy (IFS), who reportedly ignored her pleas and ostensibly sided with the accused DCF.
According to a report, married in 2020 and pregnant, in early-February, Shivkumar had compelled Dipali to accompany him on a grueling 3-day forest patrol, walking or driving hundreds of kms ignoring her maternal condition.
Consequently, upon return from the forest ordeal, she suffered a miscarriage and was in deep depression.