A 46-year-old man committed suicide at his Delhi home allegedly over non-payment of salary dues by a private school where he worked earlier as a Taekwondo coach and also because the pandemic restrictions had stifled his income avenues, police said on Thursday.

The deceased, identified as Tanoop Johar, used to work in Rohini but had been unemployed for over a year now. He was found hanging at his house in outer Delhi’s Mangolapuri area by his family members on Tuesday, they said.

In a purported suicide note, Johar has mentioned two school management officials and accused the authorities of non-payment of salary dues. He also wrote that he was “disturbed” because the school had not given him salary and he had no work recently.

The police said Johar had filed a case in the labour court against the school management last year over non-payment of salary.

One of his former colleagues said Johar had been taking online classes since March last year during the lockdown but had to discontinue later over a dispute with the school management over salary.

“After two months of taking online classes last year, Johar had questioned the school authorities over non-payment of salary. They gave the excuse that they were waiting for students to pay fees and kept assuring us that we would be given our salaries. But after four months, when we asked them again, the school management told us to resign,” a former colleague of Johar alleged.

“During the lockdown last year, we had also written to the school authorities about the issue but still our salaries have not yet been paid. We had also moved court against the management,” he said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Outer) Parvinder Singh said Johar had not been working at the school for more than a year now. “All the allegations are being looked into. The matter is under inquiry and no case has been registered yet,” he said.