A 28-year-old man died by suicide at Karakonam in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Sunday morning, allegedly due to frustration over the cancellation of the Kerala Public Service Commission list for the appointment of civil excise officers, The New Indian Express reported. The deceased, identified as Anu, had secured 77th rank in these examinations.

Anu’s elder brother found him hanging in his room. In his suicide note, Anu he said he killed himself due to unemployment.

“He was working hard to get a job in government services,” Anu’s brother told the media. “He got disappointed when the PSC list expired recently.” Anu’s parents said he had been depressed due to the lack of a job. They said he had also not been eating for the few days preceding his death.

An inquiry is under way and Anu’s body will be shifted to the morgue of the Parassala Government Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, the police said.

Tension prevailed in the area when local Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA C Hareendran justified to the media the cancellation of the Public Service Commission list. A group of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha workers manhandled Hareendran, alleging that Anu was “murdered” by the state government. The workers also staged a protest at the Public Service Commission headquarters in Pattom.

The youth workers claimed that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been controlling appointments to the commission. Police officers had to be called in to disperse the crowd.

On the other hand, Youth Congress workers plan to start a hunger strike outside the commission’s office on Monday. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala visited Anu’s house on Sunday, ANI reported.