Official found hanging from ceiling fan

GUWAHATI: The former chief minister of a remote Indian region disputed with China was found dead and hanging from a ceiling fan yesterday, police and officials said, after a court ruled last month that his appointment had been illegal.

The Supreme Court ruling dealt a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitions of expanding in the north-east, where his Bharatiya Janata Party scored its first state election victory in the region with a win in Assam in May. Kalikho Pul, 47, was the chief minister of the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Pul had suffered from depression and was upset over the judgment, his aides told media.

“He has committed suicide,” said Nabam Tuki, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Congress Party.

Pul’s family discovered the body in his bedroom at the chief minister’s residence. Media reports said he had left a diary, which police were examining.

A politician with the Congress Party since 1995, Pul became chief minister in February after rebelling against the party.

He was put in charge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government, which had imposed direct rule in the state to end a political crisis.

But the Supreme Court held illegal the imposition of president’s rule, as it is called in India, ordering that the dislodged Congress should return to power immediately, forcing Pul from office. – Reuters