Swaroop Raj, a senior executive of Genpact, committed suicide at his residence in Noida on December 18, days after he was accused of sexual harassment. The 35-year-old was the assistant vice-president of the multinational professional services firm.
According to police, Swaroop’s wife, Kriti, informed them about the incident after she found him hanging at their house. After two employees complained against Swaroop of sexual misconduct, he had been temporarily suspended from the company. He had been asked to submit his laptop and identity card.
Swaroop, who had started working with Genpact as a process developer in 2007, rose to the post of a senior manager in 2015.
Swaroop’s suicide note
A suicide note was recovered by the police which Swaroop had written for his wife.
“Hi Kriti,
I want to let you know how much I love you. Two of the employees have alleged me with sexual harassment but trust me I didn’t do anything. I know the world will understand this but, you and our families should trust me. The allegations are baseless. But the entire Genpact will know about it, hence I do not have the courage to face anyone.
I want you to be strong and live life with whole respect as your husband has not done anything.
With Love,
Swaroop
I am going as everyone will look at me with that eye even if I come clean.“
Swaroop’s family has not yet blamed anyone for his death, and his body has been sent for postmortem.
Genpact issues statement expressing grief
Genpact issued a statement expressing grief over Swaroop’s death hours after the suicide.
“Genpact’s foremost priority is to protect the privacy of the deceased employee and at this stage we would prefer not to divulge the details of the complaint. However, we want to emphasize that the complaint made serious allegations of sexual harassment which were to be duly investigated by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).
To have a fair, uninfluenced inquiry, he was placed under temporary suspension pending the closure of the inquiry in line with legal requirement and company policy so that ICC could carry out a reasonable investigation into the allegations received from two female employees. This is a very difficult time for all of us, as an organization and as friends and colleagues of the deceased. Our hearts go out to his family in this time of grief. We implore the public and media to give them space and dignity they deserve.”
