Karnataka ex-minister recovering after suicide bid

Former Karnataka minister S.A. Ramdas was recovering at a private hospital here Wednesday after a suicide bid over an affair with a woman that turned sour.

"Ramdas is responding to treatment and recovering from an injury he suffered when attempting to commit suicide late Tuesday," a spokesman for Apollo BGS Hospital told reporters in Mysore, about 150 km from Bangalore.

The 54-year-old former Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker suffered cuts in two nerves in the neck region when he tried to hang himself with a bed-sheet tied to a ceiling fan in a guest house room. He was rushed to a hospital in an unconscious state.

"Ramdas is still under observation in the intensive care unit. He is, however, out of danger and able to breathe without much difficulty," the spokesman said, adding that he may recover within the next two days.

Ramdas, a bachelor, took the extreme step as he was upset on learning that a woman, who claimed he married her recently, threatened to expose their relationship to the media with audio and video evidence.

The incident happened within hours after the woman - Premakumari - alleged that Ramdas cheated her after having an affair over the past five years with the assurance of marriage.

Revealing her relationship with Ramdas, Premakumari claimed he married her three months ago before the family diety at his house in the city.

Premakumari, from Chikmagalur and a mother of two children, secured a government job on compassionate grounds after her husband, a police constable, died over six years ago.

"He (Ramdas) threatened to commit suicide if I spoke to the media and revealed our conversations, which I had recorded on my mobile handset," she told reporters Tuesday.

Premakumari said she met Ramdas, who was the medical education minister in the first BJP government (2008-13), first in 2009 while seeking a transfer to the deputy commissioner's office in Mysore from Chikmagalur for her children's education.

"I had to resign from the job when I was transferred to Tumkur from Mysore at the behest of Ramdas, who promised to marry me and settle with him," Premakumari said.

Ramdas's family members, however, rubbished Premakumari's charges and accused her of blackmailing him for monetary gain.