A central force jawan, who had mentioned in a note that she had loaned Rs 3 lakh to a friend who was refusing to repay, shot herself in a frisking booth for women at Calcutta airport on Wednesday night.

Police said Lakshmi Biswas, 28, of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), shot herself at the chest with her service revolver in the security hold area around 11.45pm.

The jawan leaves behind a a 14-month-old daughter and a five-year-old son.

Airport officials said there was no passenger in the frisking booth - near gates 1A and 1B in the domestic departure section - or in the nearby area when Lakshmi committed suicide.

"The area usually remains crowded when flight operations are on. But no domestic flights were taking off around midnight, so there was no passenger there," an official said.

Witnesses said Lakshmi, from Assam, had entered the covered frisking booth moments before she shot herself with her 9mm pistol.

Alerted by the gunshot, other CISF personnel rushed to the frisking booth and found Lakshmi lying unconscious. She was taken to a private hospital where doctors declared her dead, police said. Her body has been sent for post-mortem.

Officials said a suicide note was found beside Lakshmi. The jawan had written that she was in mental agony as a friend who had taken around Rs 3 lakh from her as loan was refusing to pay back.

Sources said she had given the loan when she was posted in Lucknow. "She did not discuss the matter with her colleagues," an official said.

On Wednesday night, Lakshmi had called her relatives in Assam, saying she was disturbed and could "do anything".

"Her family members had alerted a relative in Calcutta but by the time that person arrived at the airport, the jawan had killed herself," said the official.

Lakshmi's husband, Sukanta Biswas, is also with the CISF at Calcutta airport. Officials said she had been shifted to Calcutta two months back.

Lakshmi lived with her husband and children at a rented apartment near the airport gate number 2, officials said.