A 35-year-old small time scrap dealer allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan after he failed to exchange old currency notes for new ones for the last three days at Northeast Delhi’s Gokulpuri area. The incident was reported to police on late Thursday night.
According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Mohammad Shakeel. Family members of the small time scrap dealer claimed that he was depressed over not being able to exchange Rs 5,000 cash which he had managed to earn in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, Dr AK Singla, the DCP of the North East district refuted the claim saying that the scrap dealer was under debt and was unable to repay money to his acquaintances.
The incident was reported at around 12 am on Thursday night when Shakeel, a scrap dealer was found hanging from a ceiling fan by his son at his Mustafabad residence in Gokulpuri.
“No suicide note has been recovered from the deceased’s possession. “We have initiated investigation under Section 174 of the CrPC (Inquest Proceedings). Further probe is on”, the DCP told The Pioneer.
Mohammad Vakeel, the brother of the deceased, said, “Shakeel was living with his 12-year-old son for the past few days since his wife had gone to their native place. A small time scrap dealer, Shakeel managed to earn Rs 300-400 per day. He had been standing in the queues for the past few days but was unable to exchange notes. On one occasion, he even carried one of our handicapped relatives on his lap thinking that his turn will come much faster. However, that did not happen. Dejected, he became worried.”
“On Thursday, he returned home around 6.30 pm. After having dinner, he went to his room around 10 pm and slept. Hours later, Shakeel’s 12-year-old son woke up. Unable to find his father beside him, he got out of the bed and found his father hanging from the ceiling fan. For the first 4 minutes, the boy was in a state of utter shock. Since we brothers live in the same house, the boy raised an alarm after which we informed police who rushed him to the GTB hospital where he was declared brought dead,” added Vakeel.
Police said the body of the victim was handed over to his family after the post-mortem was conducted.
In the preliminary investigation, it appears that due to this reason, he took the extreme step.”
Shakeel is survived by his wife and children, said police, adding that they have initiated a probe. Further investigation is underway.