Lucknow: The family of Parth Srivastava, a 27-year-old who handled social media for the UP information department, is alleging that mental harassment and stress led to his death.
Srivastava committed suicide at his Lucknow residence Wednesday. While his family said he left behind a suicide note blaming two of his seniors for mental harassment, police have denied recovering such a note and are yet to file an FIR, despite two days having passed since the incident.
Speaking to ThePrint, Parth’s mother, Rama Srivastava, said, “My son, who was working with UP government social media team, committed suicide. He was working under stress; he was under much work pressure.
“Due to work from home, sometimes he ate breakfast in the evening, not in the morning. He left behind a suicide note in which he mentioned about the harassment by seniors. Police took away suicide note and his phone. We want justice, we are requesting Yogiji to give us justice.”
Parth’s sister Shivani told ThePrint that his suicide note was posted on Twitter and was being circulated widely.
The note has, however, been removed, the family alleged.
“He tweeted the suicide note before he died and wrote the names of two people in it,” Shivani said. “Police had his mobile phone and now those tweets have been deleted.”
The private firm BECIL handles the social media accounts of the UP government but it claimed that Parth was not an employee.
“He was not on our payroll; he might have been working on a contractual basis. He may have reported to the information directorate team but not to us,” George Kuruvilla, BECIL’s chief managing director (CMD), told ThePrint.
“I do not have any details about him,” he added.
ThePrint reached Shishir Singh, director, UP information department, on his personal and official phones but he did not respond to phone calls and a text message. His staff said that he was busy with meetings.
A source in the information department, however, said two teams handle the government’s social media accounts.
“There are two teams that have been hired for handling social media,” the source said. “One sits at Lok Bhawan (the Chief Minister’s Office) and the other at the information directorate. They are of the private firm and not employees of the information department. We have no interaction with them.”
Parth worked at the office in the information directorate.
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Police deny recovering suicide note
The Lucknow Police, meanwhile, has denied recovering any suicide note from Parth’s residence in the UP capital.
“His family has not submitted any formal complaint against anybody but have reported the incident at the Indira Nagar Police Station in Lucknow so we have not registered an FIR yet,” said Ajay Tripathi, the Indira Nagar Police Station inspector.
“They only told us that his son committed suicide; so we took him to hospital where he was declared brought dead,” Tripathi added.
Rayees Akhtar, Deputy Commissioner (North), Lucknow Police, also told ThePrint that there was no formal complaint in the matter.
“We have not got any written complaint letter; if we get any then we will register the complaint,” Akhtar said.
Parth’s mother Rama Srivastava, however, told ThePrint that the male members of her family have gone to the Kanpur Ganga Ghat to perform her son’s last rites and the family will file a written complaint with the police once they return.
“We have been informed that an FIR has not been registered yet,” she said. “Right now, we are not in the right mental state to go and fight for justice in front of the police.”
Campaign on social media
One of Parth’s friends, Ashish Pandey, is running a Justice4Parth campaign on social media.
He has posted online what he claims is the suicide note.
@narendramodi @myogiadityanath @myogioffice तस्वीर में दिख रहा लड़का पार्थ श्रीवास्तव मेरा दोस्त था…था इसलिए लिख रहा क्योंकि आपके ट्वीटर को संभालने का काम करता था।लेकिन इसने अपनी जिंदगी खत्म कर ली है और जो लोग जिम्मेदार है..कृपा कार्रवाई करे #justiceforparth pic.twitter.com/UvOeFzspie
— Ashish Pandey (@vjashish31) May 20, 2021
Former IAS officer Surya Pratap Singh has backed the campaign, wondering why the Lucknow Police were not filing a case.
“All the required evidence for abetment of suicide and police mishandling is with the police. Names have been mentioned in the suicide note, what are they waiting for?” he tweeted.
Why is @lkopolice not filing FIR in Parth Srivastava’s suicide case?
All the required evidence for abetment of suicide & police mishandling is with the police, Names have been mentioned in the suicide note, what are they waiting for? @India_NHRC #Justice4ParthSrivastava
— Surya Pratap Singh IAS Rtd. (@suryapsingh_IAS) May 21, 2021
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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