In a development that set the Maharashtra government on a collision course with the Centre, the Mumbai police on Wednesday booked former BJP minister and the current Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Praful Khoda Patel for his alleged involvement in the circumstances leading to the seven-time MP Mohan Delkar committing suicide.
A day after the Maharashtra announced the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the circumstances into the death of Mohan Delkar who committed suicide in a Mumbai hotel, the Marine Drive police registered an FIR into the case.
Patel has been booked under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The Marine Drive police had initially filed an Accidental Death Report (ADR) in connection with the incident which has been converted into an FIR.
While announcing the formation of an SIT to investigate Delkar’s death, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had said the State Assembly on Tuesday: “The deceased MP Delker’s wife Kalaben Delkar and son Abhinav Delkar met the chief minister and me and requested us for thorough investigations into her husband’s death. He was a seven-time MP and was being constantly harassed. We would go deep into the case. We are setting up an SIT to investigate the entire incident’.
Deshmukh had said that in the suicide note recovered by the police, Delkar had named Praful Khoda Patel, a former BJP minister in Gujarat and the current administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, for allegedly harassing him and trying to finish off his political and social career.
It may be recalled that 58-year-old Delkar was found hanging in a hotel in the Marine Drive in south Mumbai on February 22. Fifty-eight-year-old Delkar is suspected to have committed suicide by hanging himself. The police had recovered a 16-page suicide note from the hotel room where Delkar’s body was found.
On February 24, the ruling Congress – which is one of the three constituents in the MVA government in Maharashtra had turned the needle of suspicion towards Administrator of the Union Territory (UT) of Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu and former BJP MLA Praful Patel who, it alleged, was among the UT officials that harassed Delkar leading the latter ending his life.
In a video-conference held with Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant and party’s spokesperson Dr Raju Wagmare alluded to a video clip released by late Delkar in mid-2020 and the suicide note left by the latter and rooted for thorough investigations into the circumstances leading to the suicide by the sitting MP.
“The tragic end of Mr Delkjar needs to be investigated. He has left a 16-page suicide note in which he has mentioned the names of all the officials who harassed him. It is being discussed among people that he has mentioned the name of Praful Patel, who is currently working as the Administrator of Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu since 2016,” Sawant and Dr Wagmare had said in their representation to the State Home Minister.