The Thane police probing the sensational suicide of Sanjay Banerjee, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) attached to Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), at a local restaurant on Saturday afternoon, are suspecting that he might have taken the extreme step owing to some personal issue between him and his wife Sushmita.
Meanwhile, Banerjee was cremated at Thane’s Wagle Estate crematorium on Sunday morning. His Pune-based father AK Banerjee and other family members were present for the funeral. Elder son Arjun performed the last rites.
Several senior police officers, including Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria and Thane Police Commissioner KP Raghuvanshi were present for the funeral.
A day after the Banerjee (47), shot himself in his head using his 0.32 bore private pistol when he, his wife and two children were having lunch at Goa Portuguesa restaurant in Thane’s Ghodbunder Road, the police said he was under the influence of excessive alcohol — a fact that has been established during the postmortem and the acute stress he was under at that time might have prompted him to end his life.
“Though we have not yet established the exact motive behind the suicide, available information suggests that some family matter was troubling him. We are pursuing this angle in our investigations,” a senior police officer investigating the case told The Pioneer on Sunday night.
According to the investigating officer, “He had consumed excessive alcohol and before coming to the restaurant he had consumed some alcohol at home also,” the official said.
Investigations have also revealed that Banerjee wife had driven him and two sons in their car from their residence at the Hiranandani Estate to the restaurant on the Ghodbunder Road, which is a km away.
“We have recorded the statements of restaurant waiters. Though the waiters heard both Banerjee and his wife seen a heated discussion over some issue , but they were unable to decipher as to what it was all about, since the couple was interacting with each other in English,” the senior police officer said.
“During the course of the conversation, the waiters saw Banerjee pull out his pistol and shoot himself in the head,” the official said.
Apart from wife Sushmita, his two sons Arjun (14) and Aushtosh (9) were with Banerjee. A profusely bleeding Banerjee was pronounced dead on arrival at the Thane Civil Hospital.
The investigators have also recorded the statement of Banerjee wife Sushmita, who has told the police that her husband had some work-related “stress” — a theory that the police are not accepting as yet.
The police may question the deceased wife once again in the few couple of days.
“Though it is true that he had not received salary for eight months, we do not believe that it could be a reason for his stress. He was well-off and had enough savings to sustain himself and his family,” the police officer said.