J Joseph jumped from Mango Bridge on Wednesday

A 40-year-old private tuition teacher jumped to his death into the Subernarekha River from Mango Bridge on Wednesday morning after destroying all records that he feared might help the police trace his family to his native Kerala.

Police said J. Joseph, who hailed from Kerala and lived in a rented apartment in Mango’s Sankosai, took the extreme step around 7am.

Joseph’s body was recovered by the police around 11.30am and subsequently identified from three ATM cards found in his pocket.

A suicide note, however, was not recovered from the spot or his residence.

Later, as news spread, a group of Gurukul Home Tuition students — whom Joseph taught — arrived at the scene and identified him.

Speaking to The Telegraph, inspector of Mango police station Arun Kumar Mishra said after preliminary investigations, it looked like a case of suicide. “Joseph gave private tuition in English, mathematics and science subjects to students up to Class X. He had been living in the city for the past two-and-a-half years and was a bachelor,” Mishra said.

He added that Joseph might have been depressed or was ill.

“There were marks of some external injuries on his face. So we have sent the body to MGM Medical College mortuary for post-mortem,” the inspector said.

The police suspect that Joseph may have destroyed all records bearing his Kerala address before leaving home around 4.30pm on Tuesday, the time he was last seen.

They, however, have failed to determine Joseph’s whereabouts from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning till he jumped.

“There is no way we can get in touch with his family members as Joseph has removed all the documents that might have led us to his native place in Kerala,” a police officer admitted. Joseph’s shocked neighbour Vinod Kumar remembered him as a nice person who used to teach his students very sincerely.

“Besides teaching, Joseph had started writing a novel in English. The news has come as a shock to me. I had never thought that he would meet such an unfortunate end,” he told The Telegraph.

He too added that Joseph might have been suffering from some unknown disease and could have been depressed due to it.

The police said that Joseph’s body will be kept in the mortuary for the next 72 hours after which it will be disposed off.