Karnataka cops fail to find in-laws of techie who killed himself

VARANASI/BENGALURU: A Bengaluru police team reached UP's Jaunpur Thursday looking for the Singhania family accused of abetting the suicide of Subhash Atul, a senior AI executive at a leading automobile firm. But police met with little success as their houses were locked and phones switched off.
Jaunpur Kotwali inspector Mithilesh Kumar Mishra said Atul's mother-in-law Nisha and her son Anurag had left their house on a motorbike Wednesday night. When some reporters camping there asked where they were going, Anurag replied his mother was unwell.
According to neighbours, the Singhania family had moved in two months ago. Police have launched a manhunt and pasted a notice on the entrance of the house, asking residents to appear before the IO ."We are in constant touch with local police, and they are working with us to trace the suspects," DCP Shivakumar Gunare of Bengaluru police said.
Atul, 34, took his life in his Bengaluru apartment early Monday amid a prolonged legal battle involving divorce, child custody, and a Rs 3.3 crore demand from his estranged wife Nikita Singhania. According to the FIR filed by Atul's brother Bikas, his estranged wife and her family allegedly demanded Rs 3 crore to drop police cases and Rs 30 lakh for visitation rights to see his four-year-old son. Bengaluru police registered a case against Nikita, her mother Nisha, brother Anurag, and uncle Sushil Singhania.
His lawyer Dinesh Mishra said Thursday Atul was earning a monthly salary of Rs 84,000 and the family court in Jaunpur had ordered him in July to pay Rs 40,000 a month as maintenance for his son, which he might have found burdensome.
Atul left behind a 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video detailing alleged harassment by Nikita and his in-laws, and accused the family court judge of bias. However, his lawyer Mishra said the orders passed by the court were in accordance with the law.
"The court did not mandate any compensation for his wife, as she was earning a sufficient income in Delhi. Atul might have found the Rs 40,000 payment steep. He had the option to challenge the order by appealing to higher courts, including HC," Mishra said.
According to the lawyer, Atul never demonstrated violent behaviour or mood swings while appearing before family court. "I suspect his wife and others might have demanded more money from him, forcing him to think they were blackmailing or extorting him." Atul and Nikita met through a matrimonial site and got married on April 26, 2019, in Varanasi. In his suicide note, Atul wrote that she lived with her in-laws in Bihar's Samastipur for only two days before moving to Bengaluru.