The police in Nalasopara town near Mumbai on Saturday began an investigation into the death of a Jet Airways employee. The police said Shailesh Kumar Singh was a senior technician with the ground support department of the debt-ridden private carrier, and had been suffering from cancer for the last three years, The Hindu reported.
While reports said Singh had committed suicide, a police officer was skeptical about it. “No suicide note has been found so far,” Inspector Daniel Ben said. “We have registered an accidental death report in connection with the incident.”
A police officer with the Palghar police station, however, said Singh committed suicide. “Singh was being treated at a local hospital and was brought back home around 6 am on Friday,” he said. “He was complaining of severe pain in the stomach at that time and around 1.30 pm, he was found to have killed himself.” The officer added that Singh was rushed to the Alliance Hospital in Nalasopara, where he was declared dead on arrival.
“I do not blame Jet Airways for my father’s death, but circumstances,” Shailesh Singh’s son said according to the Hindustan Times. “We have no income at home, and we had to incur huge medical expenses of my father. He ended his life owing to lack of money and his cancer.”
The airline has not paid salaries to its 23,000 employees for March, and employees say some of them have not been paid for seven months, and some since January.
On April 17, Jet Airways announced that it was temporarily suspending all operations after its lenders failed to agree on funding. On April 20, a delegation of Jet Airways employees met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to seek an expedited bidding process to revive the struggling airline. The delegation, led by Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube, also sought help in paying the staff salaries for at least one month to give them hope.
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