The views expressed by various parties regarding the unfortunate suicide of IT professional, Mihiran!

The unfortunate suicide of a young man named Mihiran Chaturanga, who worked at Arimac, created much controversy a few weeks ago. The suicidal note was also circulated on social media, saying that Arimac, where the young man had worked as an engineer, was responsible for the reason for his suicide.

Below is the note written by this 29-year-old youth living in the Thanamalwila area before committing suicide.

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The points he highlighted through this note were,

• Overworking at the workplace
• That he tried to resign from his position four times
• No one came forward from the office to listen to his issues

Also, other Facebook posts indicate that the organization he worked for did not consider the emails sent by him informing his superiors regarding the professional and personal problems he was facing.

We contacted Mihiran’s family and Arimac Company to get their versions.

Mihiran's Brother

Talking to us over the phone, Mihiran's brother Krishantha said that Mihiran was the youngest in the family. He noted that the entire family, including himself, is in great shock over Mihiran's sudden death.

We asked Mihiran's brother whether Mihiran had mentioned anything about undue mental distress due to his work situation. Krishantha revealed that Mihiran is a silent character, and although Mihiran did not say anything about problems at the workplace, he always noticed how Mihiran was working late hours.

Mihiran’s brother elaborated that Mihiran had been sick for a few days before his death due to a viral fever. Yet, Mihiran had to work continuously without rest, and on some days, he was on duty from 03.00 - 04.00 in the morning.

Krishantha also said that he saw Mihiran chatting with their mother the night before his tragic death and did not see any significant difference in his behaviour. The following day, his mother went to Mihiran’s room with morning tea and noticed he wasn’t there. Then going into the garden, mother found Mihiran's pair of sandals near the well and found that he had hung himself there, and because of this, mother fell ill again.

Kristhantha said that the letter written by Mihiran was noticed later and felt that it was not a pre-planned suicide since it did not mention any other fact other than the work pressure suffered at his workplace. He stated that the reason for his younger brother Mihiran's suicide was the undue pressure caused by the office.

However, he further stated that this decision to suicide cannot be approved and that one should leave a place that brings such oppression and should not lose his own life.

Arimac Institute

We have taken steps to inquire from the management of Arimac to know the opinion of their organization on this matter.

The management of Arimac says that Mihiran Chaturanga was a good employee of their company, and this incident deeply saddens them. The employees and the management were surprised about the incident and, however, would not accept the allegations levelled against them.

The management of the institute says that Mihiran worked from home, and they expressed support in solving the problems that arose professionally. “The projects assigned to all of his team did not burden Mihiran alone.”, says Arimac.

Also, due to such accusations, they could not help the Mihiran's family by supporting Mihiran's funeral, and the organization expresses regret for that. They further say Mihiran was an employee of the organization, and they were ready to do everything for Mihiran.

Mihiran's journey in Arimac

On April 27, 2021, Mihiran Chaturanga got selected for six months internship as a software engineer at this institute.

After that, at the end of the six-month training, he was offered a permanent appointment at the workplace and in response, Mihiran stated that he would take steps to leave after the six-month internship, and his aim is not to become a software engineer, but a development and operations engineer (DevOps).

Mihiran thanked Arimac for this; his emails to HR can be found here and here.

The company's management says that the above was the first time Mihiran talked about his resignation and that he was hired as a permanent employee of Arimac after fulfilling his requirements.

Also, an email was sent to him informing him of the promotion mentioned above and the increase in his monthly salary, and he expressed his thanks for it in this way.

After a few months, Mihiran told management about his mother's health condition, his responsibility to care for his mother, his work burden and time management issues. He also had grievances about promised salary increments and still needed to receive the promised salary. He forwarded the email to his superior officer on August 6, (2022) explaining his problems and saying that he needed time to pursue higher education and would leave the organization if company-related issues were not resolved.

When we inquired about this from the above organization, they mentioned that they were concerned about Mihiran's problems. For that, they drew the supervisor’s attention related to his project, and they held a meeting about it among the group and took steps to focus on the problems of the team members. The team supervisor emailed the project leader on September 2 about that meeting. Here is the letter sent to him by the HR manager of the company on October 25, stating that an allowance will be added to his monthly salary.

On November 8, Mihiran sent his project supervisor an email informing him that he would resign from Arimac. Since it is standard practice to leave three months after handing over the letter of resignation, it is mentioned in the mail that the last day of Mihiran in Arimac will be February 08, 2023. Following this, his supervisor and HR manager also sent an email accepting his resignation. The letter can be read here.

Even though Mihiran mentioned that he had tried to leave the company four times in his suicidal note, he did not try to resign from his company four times, the Arimac management says. Instead, the first time he tried to leave at the end of the training period, and the second time, he requested to resign recently, and the management of the company accepted it.

IT Industry personnel

A few people related to the information technology sector were also asked about the activities of the IT sector in the current and past couple of years, and they said that they were able to work from home during the COVID-19 period, and it was convenient at the time yet disadvantageous in some cases as well. One such issue is having to respond to issues in real-time. They claim that it is not possible to be conscious about the time because in some cases, especially if there are bugs in the projects or customer deadlines, yet if one feels that the company is unjustly targeting a particular individual, its best to leave such a place, as there are many opportunities in this field, even in the current scenario.

TC: Since it is very difficult to verify facts about this kind of incident independently, please also note that our explanation is not a fact-check. It is only a presentation of versions by contacting several relevant parties.

Also, it is very important to consult a doctor/psychiatrist or some professional help if you thinking about suicide. The helpline 1926 number is active 24 hours a day for depressed people in all three mediums, Sinhala, Tamil and English, where one could contact doctors and discuss your problems. This is a completely free service. Similarly, the number 1333 is a number where psychological counselling services can be obtained. Similar counselling services are available through Lanka Sumithrayo Foundation by calling 0112696666 and 0112683555.

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Sinhala language article on this story can be read here