Olympus executive in India found dead in apparent suicide

Tsutomu Omori, 49, left a note in English saying ‘I am sorry for bothering you’.

NEW DELHI: A top executive of Japan’s scandal-ridden Olympus Corp was found hung to death outside his apartment in suburban Delhi in a likely suicide, police said on Tuesday.

Tsutomu Omori, 49, head of the company’s medical equipment business in India, appeared to have killed himself late Sunday, Lal Singh, investigating officer of Gurgaon Police told Reuters.

There was no immediate suggestion his death was linked to a $1.7-billion fraud that has rocked corporate Japan and led to the arrest of senior executives in Tokyo.

“At this stage of probe, it looks like he committed suicide. One of his company executives told us he was depressed for the last two weeks,” Singh said, adding that the Japanese Embassy was informed of the death on Monday.

Two handwritten notes, one in Japanese and the other in English, were discovered from Omori’s home in Gurgaon. “I am sorry for bothering you,” the note in English read, according to Singh. The police officer said his team had not yet translated the note written in Japanese.

An official at the Japanese embassy told Reuters the mission was aware of the ongoing probe.

“The police told us on February 20 that a Japanese national’s body was found in a park outside his apartment. The cause of the death is being investigated by Indian authorities,” the diplomat said.

Earlier this month, Tokyo police arrested seven top executives of Olympus Corp for their alleged involvement in the accounting fraud, one of Japan’s biggest corporate scandals in recent times.