Former Ranji player commits suicide in UP

A senior officer of the North Eastern Railway (NER) and former Ranji cricketer allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself at his official bungalow in the Shahpur area here, police said Wednesday.

Tarun Shukla (56), who was posted as the deputy chief commercial manager, was found dead in the drawing room of his residence on Tuesday afternoon with a revolver lying near him, they said.

A two-page suicide note, in which he has thanked everyone and also appealed for not investigating the matter, was recovered from the spot.

Police have found that the handwriting in the suicide note matches with that of Shukla and post-mortem report is awaited.

Circle Officer Pravin Singh said Shukla was a Ranji Trophy cricketer.

Shukla, a native of Bareilly district, had been the captain of NE railway cricket team for 10 years and played in the Ranji Trophy from 1980 to 82.

In the first page of the note written in green ink, Shukla thanked his colleagues, friends, fellow players and relatives, while on the second page he has written with red ink that he is committing suicide due to personal reasons and appealed for not asking questions from anyone and doing any kind of probe in this regard.

He is survived by two daughters, a son and wife.

"Prima facie it is a case of suicide. The handwriting of suicide note is matching with his hand writing however his post-mortem report is awaited," Gorakhpur SSP Shalabh Mathur said.