AGARTALA: The mortal remains of Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Dhankar were flown to New Delhi with full state honours on Tuesday, a day after the senior IPS officer was found dead in the washroom attached to his office at the state police headquarters in Agartala.
His funeral is scheduled to be held with full honours on Wednesday morning at Baghpat, his native district in Uttar Pradesh.
According to police and hospital sources, security personnel posted outside Dhankar’s office heard an unusual sound between 11:30 am and 11:40 am on Monday and rushed inside, where they found him hanging. He was immediately taken to GB Hospital in Agartala, where doctors made prolonged efforts to revive him. Dr. Pradip Bhowmik of GB Hospital told reporters that Dhankar was brought in an extremely critical condition and that doctors administered CPR for nearly 48 minutes before declaring him dead at 12:48 pm.
“The DGP was practically brought dead to the hospital. Even so, as per protocol, CPR and all necessary emergency treatment were given for a long time before he was declared dead,” Dr. Bhowmik said.
Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, who paid his last respects to the DGP at the state Secretariat along with Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu, cabinet colleagues and senior officials, later spoke to reporters and confirmed that the preliminary postmortem had established death by hanging. “The preliminary postmortem has confirmed death by hanging. However, the detailed report is yet to come. The investigation will proceed as per law,” Saha said, adding, “Whatever needs to be done as per law, will be done.”
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The chief minister recalled that he had a long conversation with Dhankar as recently as July 18 at a Tripura Police passing-out parade, where the officer’s wife and other dignitaries were also present. “I could never have imagined then that he would leave us this way,” Saha said. He described Dhankar as an officer of the highest integrity.
“Anurag Dhankar was a very honest, dedicated and efficient police officer. Since he took charge as DGP, I was confident that there would be no concern regarding law and order in the state. I had complete faith in him,” he said, calling the loss “irreparable.”
Acting DGP G.S. Rao told the media that the state’s police fraternity was deeply grieved by the sudden death. “The state’s police personnel are deeply grieved by Anurag’s untimely death,” Rao said.
He added that a probe would be instituted into the circumstances surrounding it. “An inquiry committee will be constituted into the circumstances of Anurag’s death, so that the matter can be properly investigated,” Rao said, confirming that the Traffic SP, the IG (Law and Order) and the Commandant of the TSR Second Battalion would accompany the body to Uttar Pradesh as state representatives.
Following the tribute at the Secretariat, the body was taken to the police headquarters, where the Tripura Police accorded a full guard of honour before it was flown to Delhi.
The state government declared a day of state mourning, with the national flag flown at half-mast and official functions suspended. Dhankar’s elder brother, Vivek Dhankar, received the body in Agartala after arriving from Delhi on Monday night, while his son, based in Canada, was expected to reach Delhi by Tuesday evening. A special Tripura Police team accompanied Dhankar’s wife to assist the family through the process.
A 1994-batch IPS officer of the Tripura cadre, Dhankar had over three decades of administrative experience, including postings with the CBI, the CISF, and a stint with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
He had also headed the Special Investigation Team probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and overseen the Punjab National Bank fraud case investigation. He took charge as Tripura’s DGP in May 2025 and had been granted an 11-month extension beyond his scheduled retirement in line with Supreme Court guidelines.
Leader of Opposition and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, however, demanded a judicial inquiry into the death, expressing doubt over the circumstances.
“We want to know what circumstances forced the state’s top police officer to take such an extreme decision,” Chaudhury said. He alleged that democratic and constitutional rights had been undermined in the state over the past eight years.
“For the past eight years, an abnormal situation has prevailed in this state, and the DGP’s death is no exception to that,” he said, adding that he had spoken to Dhankar personally in recent days and found him distressed.
Rejecting a CBI probe, Chaudhury said, “We have no faith in a CBI inquiry, as the agency is not working impartially. A judicial inquiry under a sitting judge of the Tripura High Court is the only acceptable path.”
Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman echoed the demand, noting that Dhankar had reportedly been under considerable pressure in the days before his death. Meanwhile, the CPI(M) staged a protest march in Agartala on Monday evening demanding a fair probe.
Police said the investigation is continuing and that the exact cause of death will be confirmed once the detailed forensic and postmortem reports are received.
