In a shocking development, former managing director of Tata Finance, Dilip S Pendse committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his Dadar residence in north-central Mumbai on Wednesday.

In a note recovered by the police, Pendse attributed his suicide to “personal reasons”. He stated that he had taken the extreme step due to “frustrations due to personal life issues”. Pendse was 61.

The police suspect he must have committed suicide between 9.30 am and 2.30 pm on Wednesday, at his residence located near the Swaminarayan Temple in Dadar (East).

Having registered an accidental dearth report,  his body was sent for an autopsy to the BMC-run lTMG Hospital at Sion in north-central Mumbai.

It may be recalled that in 2016, SEBI had barred Pendse and three other entities from the capital market for manipulations at the time of the firm’s right issue in 2001.

 The SEBI’s order had followed an investigation by it into the dealings of Inshaallah Investments Pvt. limited in the shares of Himachal Futuristic Corporation limited, Tata Engineering and locomotive Company limited (presently known as Tata Motors limited), Infosys Technologies limited (Infosys) and Software Solutions India limited.

 The SEBI had launched the investigations against Pendse based on a complaint filed by Tata Finance, which had alleged certain illegal carry forward transactions in these shares at Pendse’s behest.

 After a tiff with the Tata group’s management, Pendse had been removed as the MD of Tata Finance in 2001.

 Pendse was arrested in 2003 by the New Delhi police for some alleged fraudulent transactions and was behind the bars for a period then.