A former bureau chief of a leading Bangladeshi newspaper was found dead at the newspaper’s office in the southern city of Barishal on Friday evening, police said.
The body of Pulak Chatterjee, 57, a former Barishal bureau chief of the Bengali-language daily Samakal, was found hanging from a rope inside the newspaper’s office on the second floor of a building on Peyara Road.
Mehedi Hasan, a sub-inspector at Kotwali Police Station under the Barishal Metropolitan Police, said officers went to the building after receiving information at about 7 p.m. Friday and found Chatterjee’s body inside the Samakal office.
Several Bangladeshi news organizations, including Jugantor and Alokito Bangladesh, have offices on the second and third floors of the same building.
Chatterjee had served as Samakal’s bureau chief in Barishal but was relieved of his position around 2023, according to his family. He had remained unemployed since then.
His wife, Nilotpala Mukherjee, told journalists that her husband had been depressed since losing his job.
“He had been depressed since losing his job. But none of us thought he would take his own life because of that,” she said.
Chatterjee’s brother, Dipak Chatterjee, a land administration official, also said his brother had been somewhat depressed because he did not have a job.
“That could also be a reason,” he said.
Suman Chowdhury, Samakal’s current Barishal bureau chief, said Chatterjee had a spare key to the office and would occasionally visit and spend time there.
SM Palash, a journalist with the daily Jugantor whose office is on the third floor of the same building, said Chatterjee would sometimes come to the office, sit there and read newspapers.
Palash said Chowdhury came to him Friday evening after Chatterjee’s wife was unable to reach her husband by phone and asked for help looking for him.
Because it was Friday, the office assistant was not present. When Chowdhury arrived at the Samakal office, he found the door locked from the inside. Looking through an opening, he saw Chatterjee’s body hanging and immediately informed police.
Chatterjee is survived by his wife and a daughter.
Police had not announced a final determination on the circumstances of his death in the information immediately available.
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