Atul Subhash, a 34-year-old software engineer from Uttar Pradesh, was found dead in his residence in Bengaluru in a tragic case of suicide. Subhash had left behind a 24-page note and a 1.5-hour-long video in which he accused his estranged wife and her family of harassment and filing false cases against him.
His younger brother, Bikas Modi, emphasised that Subhash was under immense pressure, saying, “He gave his life fighting against the system.”
Speaking to the media, Bikas Modi revealed that Subhash had been dealing with nine to ten false cases. He also recounted the moment he learned about his brother’s death, describing it as devastating. “I got a call from an unknown number at 2:50 a.m. on Monday,” said Modi. “The person asked if I had spoken to Atul. I told them I had spoken to him on Sunday night, and the conversation was normal.
When they asked if he had suicidal thoughts, I snapped, saying, ‘What kind of rubbish are you talking?'” Initially, Modi dismissed the call, suspecting it to be a prank.
However, he found scary messages coming from his brother and four emails an hour ago in his phone. “He had sent messages like, ‘These are the persons to whom you contact,’ but I thought his WhatsApp might have been hacked,” Modi said.
The caller, who identified himself as a Save Indian Family Foundation member—a men’s rights group—called the police as well. And because Modi describes the cops as initially hesitant to knock down the door, which broke on its own, they assumed Subhash wasn’t home because his vehicle wasn’t present in the parking lot.
Later, Bikas was told that his brother had been injured, and he was asked to go to Bengaluru immediately. He reached there and faced the shocking reality.
“I went to the house and saw his body hanging. I could not believe my brother, who had always been strong in front of me, had done this,” Modi said. The suicide note left behind by Subhash carried the haunting words, “Justice is Due.”
His riveting 24-page suicide note has stirred a much needed debate around the rampant misuse of women-centric laws to frame, exploit, extort money from innocent family-leaning men to fulfill personal vendetta, a point that even the Supreme Court of India has alarmed the country on multiple occassions.
