Bengaluru: Techie’s suicide has sparked country-wide discussion on men’s rights, says Home Minister Parameshwara

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Sunday said tech worker Atul Subhash’s death by suicide in Bengaluru on December 9 has sparked country-wide discussions about men’s rights.

The case of suicide, he said, has opened a new discussion throughout the country centered on men’s rights. “We always talked about women’s rights, but now this particular case has exposed men's rights and how weak the men’s rights system is working,” he told the media in Bengaluru.

The Bengaluru Police, the Home Minister said, would also investigate the factors that drove him to the extreme step.


Atul, a 34-year-old AI engineer hailing from Bihar, ended his life in his apartment in east Bengaluru, accusing wife Nikita Singhania and her family for driving him to the extreme step in a video and a 24-page death note. He said he had been harassed by false legal cases and extortion attempts.

He mailed his note to a men’s rights nonprofit, but he had breathed his last by the time police reached his flat.

The cruel fate that befell him triggered a nationwide outrage with groups of men taking out processions in Mumbai, Delhi and other places demanding justice, resonating with Subhash’s last words, “Justice is Due.” The protests also brought enormous pressure on the Bengaluru City Police to launch a manhunt for the three accused Subhash had named as being responsible for his act.

The City Police tracked down three members of the family including wife after they dodged arrest by fleeing their UP home. On Saturday, the police arrested Singhania in Gurugram and mother and brother in Pragyaraj. A local court in Bengaluru has remanded them in judicial custody, The victim’s family has also accused the family court’s judge in the case.

Meanwhile, pressure is building up in social media on tech services firm Accenture to act on Singhania, its employee, taking note of her alleged role in the AI engineer’s suicide.