Police recovered five “suicide notes” after recovering the hanging body of Pulak Chatterjee, former bureau chief of daily Samakal in Barishal, from the newspaper’s bureau office in the city on Friday evening.

Pulak wrote separate notes addressed to his wife Priyanka and daughter Prakriti, younger brother Dipak Chatterjee and his wife Iti, Barishal Press Club General Secretary SM Zakir Hossain, Samakal’s Barishal bureau in-charge Suman Chowdhury and the administration.

Barishal Metropolitan Police Commissioner Abu Raihan Muhammad Saleh said suicide notes have been found and that the matter is under investigation.

In the note addressed to the administration, Pulak said nobody is responsible for his death and that he could no longer endure the pain caused by his illness.

“I tried a lot to remain healthy. I even consulted doctors in Vellore, India, but could not recover. My illness was pushing me back socially. When I was suffering from physical pain, I could not go anywhere,” he wrote.

He requested the administration to hand over his body to his family without causing them any harassment.

In the note to his wife and daughter, Pulak asked them to forgive him and urged Prakriti to continue her studies and music lessons.

He also asked Priyanka to stay with his younger brother Dipak, saying Dipak would look after her.

Addressing Zakir Hossain, Pulak wrote that they shared many memories and requested him to help ensure that his body is handed over to his family without harassment.

He also requested Zakir to look after his wife and daughter occasionally.

In the note to his brother Dipak and sister-in-law Iti, Pulak asked Dipak to take care of Priyanka and Prakriti, saying he has placed a major burden on him and asking him to forgive him.

In the note addressed to his longtime colleague Suman Chowdhury, Pulak expressed regret for putting him in an embarrassing situation.

He said they had worked together for nearly 18 years and asked Suman to forgive him if he had ever caused him any pain.

Pulak also requested Suman to recover any money due to him from Samakal and hand it over to his wife, if possible.

Police sent the body from the Samakal Barishal bureau office to the morgue of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital around 9pm Friday.

Earlier in the evening, local people saw his body hanging inside the newspaper’s bureau office on Parara Road in the city. Police later arrived at the scene and broke open the office door to recover the body.

Pulak had served as the Barishal bureau chief of daily Samakal. He was dismissed from the newspaper in May 2023.

He occasionally used to visit the Samakal office and sit there.

Pulak was a former general secretary of the Barishal Press Club and a senior member of its current executive committee.