‘They had turned very religious’
NEW DELHI: Former corporate affairs director general BK Bansal had turned religious to recover from the grief of losing his wife Satyabala and daughter Neha.
Bansal’s wife and daughter had killed themselves in the same Neelkanth apartment flat two months ago where he and his son were found hanging onTuesday morning.
Bansal and his son Yogesh had started organising pooja in their flat following their neighbour’s advice. Neighbours said that the Bansals had decided to hold religious rituals for 51 days inside their flat.
Raghubir Singh, security manager of Neelkanth Apartments where the Bansals lived, said that even on Monday evening, Bansal had given Rs 2,100 to the society’s priest to arrange some items needed for a pooja.
“The father-son duo looked fine after the pooja started at their home last week. We don’t know what suddenly happened after,” said the security manager.
Bansal’s relatives who live in Hisar, Haryana, said they could not believe their ears when the police informed them about the double suicide on Tuesday morning.
Ever since being granted bail in the graft case, Bansal used to spend most of his time in Hisar with his son
“He had started visiting Hisar every week with Yogesh. We were happy that he was recovering from the tragedy, but didn’t know that they planned to commit suicide as well,” said a relative. Three relatives of Bansal had come to claim Bansal and his son Yogesh’s bodies after autopsy at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital.
Bansal’s elder brother was taking care of him in Hissar.
Neighbours at Neelkanth Apartments, where Bansal had been living since 2004 with his family, described him as a humble and religious person. He was known for helping others financially.
“It was only after his arrest we got to know that he was a top ranked government official. He used his own car; there was no official vehicle that ever came to pick him up,” said Harish, a neighbour.
Neighbours also fear that after a spate of suicides, the flat where the Bansals resided will never see another occupant.
They claimed that the duo was depressed and Yogesh’s business had to be folded up after the CBI raids in July.