A 27-year-old fireman in the state’s fire service died on Thursday at Pallipattu fire station in Tiruvallur district after posting a 1-minute video on WhatsApp blaming his superiors for harassment.
P Manikandan collapsed and died at the fire station, early on Thursday. The Sholinghur Government hospital doctors said that he died due to cardiac arrest but suspect him of having consumed poison, according to a TOI report.
He had attempted suicide on October 9 after submitting a complaint against his superiors. But his colleagues took him to the hospital, and he recovered.
After this incident, Manikandan and nine others were transferred from Tiruvannamalai to Pallipattu fire station on October 17. In the video, he named senior officers and claimed that he had been transferred for giving written complaints against them. He also said that they are still harassing him by posting him to Pallipattu station.
A senior official from the department claimed that they had been “lenient” with him.
“We didn't harass him by placing him under suspension or issuing memo for his earlier suicide attempt. Instead, we transferred him to maintain discipline in the department,” Director of the Department of Fire and Rescue Services Ramesh Kudawla told TOI.
He was employed in Tamil Nadu Fire & Rescue Services (TNFRS) on compassionate grounds after his father’s death.