Axis Bank sales manager arrested over suicide of colleague in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad/Noida: The Ghaziabad Police on Thursday arrested a sales manager of Axis Bank in Noida in connection with the suicide of a woman sales executive, officials said.

Shivani Tyagi (27), who worked at Axis Bank's regional office in Noida and lived in Ghaziabad, had consumed poison and died on July 12, her family said.

Tyagi was physically and mentally harassed by some of her colleagues and staff, her brother alleged in the FIR, citing the purported suicide note she had left behind.

In a statement on Wednesday, Axis Bank said the executive worked for a third party company Quess Corp hired by it.

"On July 14, plaintiff Gaurav Tyagi informed police his sister, fed up with the harassment at her job, committed suicide," the Ghaziabad Police said in a statement on Thursday.

"He said his sister was asked for a resignation letter by the company, but her resignation letter was not accepted by the bank, rather she was wrongly terminated. Due to torture, my sister committed suicide," the police statement said.

The police said an FIR was lodged at the Nandgram police station after which officials of the bank were interrogated, and the CCTV footage of the premises was analysed.

"Accused Mohammed Akram has been arrested. Akram, who is the sales manager in the bank, was the nearest superior of Shivani Tyagi and was the team leader. He did not accept her resignation letter but under the influence of other accused Jyoti Chauhan, got Shivani terminated, because of which she became depressed and committed suicide," the police said.

Meanwhile, Quess Corp, the third party company engaged by Axis Bank, said it was "deeply saddened by the unfortunate incident" involving Shivani Tyagi and "regret the loss experienced by her family."

"As a staffing services provider, we supply manpower to various organisations across sectors at customer premises. The employees deployed at these sites work under client instructions and mandates. Quess' role is limited to hiring, training, and deploying resources according to project requirements," it said in a statement.

The company further said it was working with the authorities and will share any records of resources hired by it as required by them and support the investigation.

"As per our knowledge, authorities have taken custody of employees who have been named in the suicide note, including the bank's core employees for further investigation," it added.

On Wednesday, Axis Bank had said it was "deeply saddened" by the unfortunate incident but clarified that she was not an employee of the bank.

"She was an employee of QUESS Corp Limited. From a preliminary review of the incident, we understand that there was a significant disagreement between the executive and another QUESS Corp employee at our Noida office.

She was under investigation by QUESS Corp and was issued a show-cause notice on July 10 and disciplinary action was taken by QUESS Corp," Axis Bank said.