A 48-year-old software engineer employed with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Pune has died by suicide after enduring what his family and colleagues describe as prolonged workplace harassment. The deceased, Amit Abhay Brahme, left behind a two-page suicide note accusing two senior colleagues and a close associate of subjecting him to mental distress and professional humiliation.
According to the note recovered during the investigation, Brahme alleged that key assignments and high-performing projects were systematically taken away from him and replaced with exceptionally challenging tasks designed to set him up for failure. He further claimed that two senior employees, identified as Archana and Shashwati, repeatedly humiliated him in front of team members and pressured him to quit his job.
Brahme also accused a colleague he considered a friend, Vinod Palicha, of filing false complaints against him in an attempt to damage his reputation within the company. The engineer was found dead at his residence on June 2.
Based on the allegations contained in the suicide note, Pune Police have registered a case of abetment to suicide against the three employees named by Brahme. Assistant Commissioner of Police Sudhakar Yadav said investigators are examining all technical, professional and workplace-related aspects of the case. No arrests have been made so far.
The tragedy has reignited concerns over employee well-being in India’s IT sector. The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), a registered IT employees’ union in Maharashtra, urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to examine whether sufficient safeguards exist within the industry to detect employee distress, address workplace grievances and prevent such incidents.
NITES also pointed to another death linked to the TCS campus in Pune’s Hinjewadi area earlier this year, when a 24-year-old employee, Sujal Vinod Oswal, was found dead under circumstances that remain under investigation. The union argued that two employee deaths connected to the same corporate establishment within a few months warrant serious scrutiny rather than being dismissed as isolated incidents.
