A 24-year-old lance naik hanged himself in the corridor of his barracks at Fort William on Sunday afternoon. His colleagues came across the body and informed the authorities.

P. Gunasekhar, of the military engineering service, had been on duty since morning. He was from Bangarappa, in Andhra Pradesh. No suicide note was found.

The Fort William authorities are in the dark about the reason behind the suicide. The body has been sent for post-mortem and a case of unnatural death has been registered with Maidan police station.

“Gunasekhar’s colleagues did not notice anything odd in his behaviour. He returned to the barracks around 2 pm, telling his colleagues that he would join them shortly,” said a Fort William spokesman.

Around 2.30 pm, two of his colleagues came back to the barracks and saw the body hanging in the corridor. “The corridor leads to the toilet. Gunasekhar dragged out a large wooden box from a room to tie the rope to the ceiling. Almost everyone was on duty at that time,” said an officer of Maidan police station.

The lance naik had served in Srinagar. He was transferred to Fort William a month and a half ago. “Gunasekhar’s brother is also in the army. Their sister got married a couple of years ago. Their father, too, was part of the force. He retired a few years ago,” added another police officer.