Chennai: Chennai police on Wednesday confirmed that former India captain V.P. Sathyan had committed suicide by jumping in front of a running train.

Police sources said that around 11.30 am yesterday, Sathyan, who had also played for clubs such as Kerala Police and Mohun Bagan, jumped in front of a Tambaram-bound suburban local at the Pallavaram railway station.

Everyone was taken by surprise, and Sathyan met his death instantly, sources said. “We received the information around 12 noon and rushed to find his body lying on the track in a pool of blood,” the railway police in Tambaram said.

The former India captain’s body was taken to the nearby government hospital at Chromepet and later handed over to his close relatives.

Sathyan had earlier come to the Guindy railway station on Tuesday morning to board a suburban train en route to his Indian Bank office near the Chennai Beach Station terminus.

Strangely, he took a train to the opposite direction and landed at the Pallavaram station on way towards Tambaram, the sources added.

Sathyan left behind letters written in Malayalam, one to his wife Anitha saying that “dire financial state forced me to take this extreme step. Please forgive me.”

Another to the police, saying nobody was responsible for his death and a third one to his friends in the media, pleading with them not to make a big issue of his death, police sources said.

The former footballer had apparently run into heavy debts of late which were also believed to have led to domestic strains, sources said.