A critically-ill, HIV-positive man allegedly committed suicide early on Monday at a rehabilitation centre run by the Missionaries of Charity in Tangra, where he was lodged for the past four months.

Apparently, his wife had not turned up to meet him on Sunday.

Police said Asim Bala, 35, hanged himself from the ceiling of the toilet attached to the room, which he shared with other inmates.

During preliminary investigation, police came to know that Bala was suffering from acute depression.

?He was a mason by profession and had to spend several months in Mumbai, away from his home in Bongaon,? said Peeyush Pandey, deputy commissioner of police (detective department). No suicide note has been recovered.

Bala?s room-mates at Dipshikha, the rehabilitation centre, were the first to know about the incident around 6 am.

?Room-mate Shambhu Deb entered the toilet to find Bala hanging from the ceiling,? said Sudhakar Rao, an AIDS patient from Orissa, who has been living at the centre for the past one-and-a- half years.

?Bala?s wife called him on Saturday and was supposed to come to meet him on Sunday,? said Vivian George, an inmate from Bhubaneswar. ?But later, she said she would come after 10 days,? he added.

Bala looked depressed throughout the next day. ?I have not seen her for the past one-and-a- half months. Now, she wants me to wait for another 10 days,? Bala told Rao on Sunday night.

?Bala had been brought to the centre by an NGO last year,? said an officer of Tangra police station. ?He was very ill and in the past few weeks, he had become weaker. We would have to collect his plate and serve him food,? said Rao.

The body has been sent for post-mortem. Bala?s wife Nirupama has come down from Bongaon to collect the body.