Mangaluru : In a shocking incident Retired assistant police sub-inspector, Narayana Maniyani (63) committed suicide by hanging himself at Thokkottu on Tuesday, December 23.

He received President’s Medal and the state award for meritorious service, He survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.

It is said, since a week, he was found to be depressed, he had used a newly bought rope to end his life. Though two paper sheets were found in the room they were blank.

Maniyani had hired a room at the Hotel Vrindavan at Tokkottu on Tuesday evening. He had arrived by a car and instructed his driver to get in touch with him at 10 pm. When he tried to contact Maniyani, the cell phone was found not-reachable. The driver rushed there along with Maniyani’s eldest son only to find that the room was locked and Maniyani was not responding. The door was later broken open to find Maniyani hanging from the ceiling fan.

Maniyani had rendered service in various police stations in the district. He had played a great role in hunting down notorious criminal Ripper Chandran and nabbing the culprits in the Goodujalu robbery involving assets worth over Rs 20 crore.

Maniyani was involved in chit fund and finance business, apart from operating tourist vehicles, but had never revealed to anyone the reason that was worrying him.

He had recently ventured into media field in September this year by setting up Kural Media Pvt Ltd and starting Daily News 10 tv news channel.

Health minister, U T Khadar, senior police officials, and others visited the spot and offered condolences to the family members. Ullal police have registered a case. Investigation is on.