• Was it a collective conspiracy by unscrupulous contractors? Pandey was reputed to be an honest man. Some contractors might have hatched a plan to eliminate him to “muscle or bribe” their way to easy payments .

Why it could be suicide

• Pandey was under a lot of pressure and was allegedly disturbed for a fortnight. He might have chosen the collectorate building to embarrass the police.

• His slippers and wrist watch were placed at a distance from the railings. This can be attributed to religious beliefs — he was a Brahmin — and a symbolic removal of worldly shackles. But he did not remove his sacred thread.

• The handwriting in the ‘suicide note’, found from his trouser pocket matched his, although his family denies it, claiming that he was not given to writing in English.