Assam Home Secretary Shiladitya Chetia shoots self with service gun moments after wife dies in hospital

In a tragic incident, Assam Home Secretary Shiladitya Chetia took his life with a bullet inside the ICU of a private hospital in Guwahati, where his wife died of cancer, moments earlier on Tuesday.

Chetia, who was a 2009-batch officer from the Indian Police Service (IPS), allegedly shot himself dead with his service gun.

Chetia previously served as superintendent of police in Tinsukia and Sonitpur districts. His wife, Agamoni Barbaruah was in the fourth stage of carcinoma and was under treatment at a private hospital in the city for the last several days. Chetia was on leave for the past four months because of his wife's illness. The couple had no children.

DGP G P Singh said in a post on X, “In an unfortunate turn of events, Sri Siladitya Chetia, IPS 2009, Secretary Home and Political took his own life this evening, a few minutes after the attending physician declared the death of his wife who was battling cancer for a long time. Entire Assam Police family is in deep grief.”

Chetia's late father was also a police officer and is survived by two sisters. He had lost his mother and mother-in-law in the past few months, PTI reported, citing sources.