A local BJP party leader, Santosh Pandey, close to Higher Educaiton Minister Uma Shankar Gupta, committed suicide by hanging at his Kotra Sultanabad residence on Friday. The deceased was also president of Patal Bharavi Durga Utsav Samiti and used to install tableau of Goddess Durga during nine-day festival of Navratri.
According to the Kamla Nagar police, Santosh Pandey was found dead at his under construction house in Kotra Sultanabad on Friday morning. He was rushed to the nearby Sharda hospital where he was declared dead.
Police were informed and after preliminary investigation the body was sent for the post-mortem. In the initial investigation, it was found that Pandey was critically ill and doctors have claimed that liver and Kidney were damaged severely. Earlier, around two years ago, family sources informed that victim’s 18-year-old son Vasu had drowned at Kaliasot dam.
The death occurred under suspicious circumstances and in the investigation in this regard is still on. It was claimed that since then, Pandey was facing problems mentally. In the investigation the family members, locals and acquaintances were questioned but nothing vital which could lead to the reasons of death was found. After the death of Vasu, Pandey went into depression and later refrained himself from the political and social frames.
Vasu was Pandey’s only child and after his loss he became inactive in the politics and alienated from the cultural committees headed by him. The police have registered a case under section 174 of the CrPC and have started further investigation.